Rebels fired five rockets at U.S. special forces training in eastern Afghanistan, the army said Monday. The rockets were fired Sunday near the eastern city of Gardez and missed the soldiers by 800 yards. No one was hurt, an army statement said. A patrol from the 82nd Airborne Division was dispatched to investigate the attack. The statement did not say whether anything was found.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/05/2003 08:49 am ||
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GEORGE GALLOWAY said he was pelted with eggs today when he spoke at a May Day rally. The Glasgow Kelvin MP was speaking at a workers' festival in Wallasey, Merseyside, to a crowd of around 200 supporters. When he began his speech, a shaven-headed man threw three objects including eggs and shouted: "You are up Saddam's a***." The man was confronted by several members of the crowd before being arrested by police to prevent a breach of the peace.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/05/2003 02:51 pm ||
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#2
> What a waste of eggs.
Yeah, the protester missed - Galloway's good at dodging.
Posted by: A ||
05/05/2003 15:44 Comments ||
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Mr Galloway told Sky News the egg was thrown by a member of the British National Party.
"I was not pelted. Two known members of the far-right BNP threw a couple of eggs at me but because I am a Scotsman and they are far-right activists I managed to avoid them," he said. Thanks George for clearing up any confusion with a confusing non sequitur.
#5
Doesn't sound like a BNP supporter to me.BNP was against the war.Here's the link to their official statement ont he war:
http://www.bnp.org.uk/articles/stop_war_iraq.htm They blame the war in Iraq on oil companies and the "Israeli lobby".Amazing how the real far right sounds exactly like the leftists,isn't it?
Posted by: El Id ||
05/05/2003 17:12 Comments ||
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#6
The shit storm he's facing will make getting pelted by eggs (at a May Rally no less!) seem like a nice way to unwind.
This guy is in big, big, big trouble...maybe even facing a hangin'
Posted by: R. McLeod ||
05/06/2003 3:23 Comments ||
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EFL
Britain hopes to start issuing passports storing information about the holder on computer chips within two years. It hopes to introduce passport cards with biometric information, such as an iris scan or fingerprints, by the year 2006.
Boy, that's gonna frost the jihadis...
However, the Home Secretary is concerned that some other major countries are lagging behind in developing the new technology. About 3,000 passports go missing in Britain every year. Most are thought to be stolen by Pakistanis, Yemenis and jihadis criminals gangs behind immigration rackets, but ministers acknowledge that they could be ending up in terrorists' hands.
"Acknowledge" it? They should be the first to be pointing it out!
Mr Blunkett will argue that the massive growth in travel â 90 million foreign nationals passed through the UK last year on holiday or business â increased the need for the work. Mr Blunkett will also argue that the checks can only be made truly effective if there are common standards in north America, western Europe, Japan and Russia. The passports, to be launched in 2005, would carry facial recognition data, which records details of the distance between points on the face, and a digital copy of the bearer's signature. The aim is to make it much harder to alter the document for another person. The Government has begun a pilot scheme on the use of iris recognition, which is considered to be more reliable than fingerprinting. It involved checking a group of frequent travellers at Heathrow airport against a database that stored details of their irises. Home Office sources said the trials so far have been encouraging. They also have a beneficial side-effect of freeing immigration staff to make checks on other, higher-risk groups of travellers. The feasibility of developing biometric technology â which could also be used on a national identity card â has already been discussed by Mr Blunkett and Tom Ridge, the head of the US Department of Homeland Security. Not going to see one of those here. But for passports this might be useful.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/05/2003 12:42 am ||
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#1
just do us a favour and force the women to remove the scarf on the photo
#2
Data stored in unsecured locations is still unsecured. Any location sophisticated enough to read a smart chip is sophisticated enough to have a network link.
#3
IIUC, the biometric's are still beatable to those with the $ and know-how, they are most successful at preventing those not in the database from accessing - i.e : security entrances, computers, etc., but it will keep the midlevel riffraff out
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/05/2003 8:43 Comments ||
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In Bangkok I knew a lot of vacationing Brits who would sell their passports for beer money. The going rate on the street was about $250(US) and the British Embassy would cheerfully issue a new passport to replace the "lost" one for about $12(US).
On the other hand, the US Embassy charged a fee of close to $300 for replacing lost passports, and I certainly never "lost" mine!
IRNA -- A German foreign ministry spokesman here Monday strongly denied alleged statements by German deputy foreign minister, Juergen Chrobog, calling the United States a "police state".
"Nope. Nope. Never said it. Nope. Wudn't me..."
"That's totally unfounded and absurd. That does not correspond to the fact," Walter Lindner said during a news conference. German media quoted Chrobog as saying during an internal lecture to ex-German ambassadors that the US was heading towards a "police state". Chrobog was also Germany's ambassador to the US from 1995 until 2001.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/05/2003 03:07 pm ||
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#1
Fred, is there any reason that you often take IRNA articles to prove how bad Germany is? Fact is that the "German media" this article quotes don't mention anything like this. And they would if it had any relevance or importance.
IRNA would probably even quote my local grocer if he made a point Iran wants to hear.
#2
TGA. I won't fault German media for not mentioning this. (If it's even true) After all, the citizens of Germany are their customers-not Rantburgers. The fact remains that it doesn't need to be relevant or important to the German people for it to be of interest to Rantburgers. BTW, you may be putting too much faith in your media. I know I don't put a lot of faith in the media here.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
05/05/2003 16:03 Comments ||
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IRNA's a propaganda vent, and the U.S. either collapsing momentarily or turning into a police state keeps showing up in propaganda from a number of sources. This is part of that collection. My guess is that the report referenced did show up in something, somewhere - likely on the disreputable and probably small circulation end of the press - and IRNA jumped on it. The story's in the "have you stopped beating your wife" category.
I've been leaving in the IRNA identifier lately, so readers evaluate reliability without going to the site to check, kind of like DEBKA reports. There's no intent to single out Germany; I suspect IRNA's got a scrubber there, to dig out articles like this one.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2003 16:11 Comments ||
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Mike, I shall be dammned if I put faith in what media report (German or U.S.). Btw IRNA seems to be the only paper carrying this.. and it's a denial actually.
Btw I know Mr Chrobog personally and a remark like this from him is rather unlikely.
#5
Thanks Fred for clarification. Might very well be that IRNA has hired a guy who sifts through the local German papers.
Also the word "police state" (Polizeistaat) has a special meaning in Germany. It was used in the 70s when the Schmidt government (social democrats btw) cracked down hard on the RAF terrorists and some measures were seen to be over the mark. The U.S. has adopted tougher measures. For even tougher times, though.
#6
It's probably something that happened back in March. Here's what I wrote on Mar-10: "Walter Kolbow, junior minister in the German Defense Ministry, denied accusing Bush of being a dictator. Instead, he claims what he really said on Sunday is that "The Americans look more and more like dictators with their unilateral decisions." No matter which variant he uttered, does Herr Kolbow believe that one is more acceptable than the other?" [link to ABC news article in the original]
I can see how Iranians would transform Kolbow into Chrobog, German sounds must be pretty foreign to their fatwa-trained ears... See this for a further reference to Kolbow's anti-American speech.
#18
TGA - I bow to someone with greater survival skills than I possess! My dad was in the 4th Armored - also a Patton unit. As for Germany, I haven't yet seen the local police station snipers on overpasses, looking for "a white Opel", like the Germans did right after Munich. I am glad I drove a tan VW, rather than a white Opel, though! I made friends with several of the German Landespolizei in Wiesbaden. Good people, and better trained and educated than many US police officers. I was always glad they were on "our" side!
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/05/2003 20:15 Comments ||
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They still are, Old Patriot!
As for Patton, I wished he would indeed have gone on... to Moscow. Would have spared me the sequel to that survival story: in Siberia.
#20
TGA - I'm reminded of the movie "The Monster Squad", specifically the scene where the young boys confront the elderly man (played by Leonardo Cimino)whom they believe to be a monster, only to find out he's just a kindly old man. As he escorts them out the door (after giving them milk and cookies), they still insist that there really ARE monsters in the world.
The man agrees, and as the door closes, you can see the tatoo on his arm.
Yeah. There are monsters in the world. And it's up to America and her allies to try to fight them without becoming monsters themselves.
Ed Becerra
Posted by: Ed Becerra ||
05/05/2003 20:51 Comments ||
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Uh, folks, it's not just IRNA (via Winds of Change).
President Bush is considering a stopover in the Polish city of Krakow en route to Russia this month to thank Poles for participating in the Iraq war, Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski said. Kwasniewski said Bush might visit on May 30. It would be his second trip to Poland. Poland, among Washington's strongest European supporters in toppling Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, is preparing to take command of one of Iraq's three postwar zones. The United States and Britain would control the other zones. The stabilization plan excludes France and Germany, America's harshest critics of the Iraq war who were angered at Poland their future EU ally for its support of Washington. Poland, set to join the EU next year, sent about 200 troops to the U.S.-led war in Iraq. Under the stabilization plan, Poland is expected to take command of the northern part of Iraq, where it would supervise military and humanitarian relief. Ukrainian, Slovak and Romanian forces would likely participate under Polish command, the president said. Poland's defense and foreign ministers were to hold talks in Washington on Monday and Tuesday to determine how many troops Warsaw will send to Iraq and how the deployment will be financed. Poland has said it cannot pay for the mission or send more than 2,000 troops. That's OK, we take care of our friends.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/05/2003 08:28 am ||
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#1
Good move, having the Poles mainly working with the Kurds. For the Poles, this means a prestige job working with a mostly cooperative native population already possessing some experience in self-rule and self-policing, and needing the sort of self training, development, and discipline that the Poles had to go through themselves when they got free of the USSR. Their troops will get some more training and practice working in cooperation with American Air Forces, which will be a plus in the future.
From the Kurd point of view, they get the protection from the Coalition without the baggage of having "Yankee Imperialist soldiers" on the ground. Instead, they're from a nation that itself knew what it was like to be under foreign domination and with little respect.
A rare, ideal match: I expect the officers from all sides to be swapping war stories and crying about past atrocities into their beers after hours, as well as encouraging each other on the future.
#2
What a great stroke of strategy. Involve the Poles in nation building and send a message to the Eastern European countries that we (the U.S.A.) want you involved. What a contrast to France's marginalization of these coutries. Also, what a great rebuke to the Pope's instransigence on the war. (As a Roman Catholic, I won't soon forget the Vatican's stance on this war and its comments about President Bush.)
#3
Kwasniewski was caught on videotape making fun of the pope, but he was still re-elected. This tells you something about the Poles' relationship with the pope: "we love you dearly but when it comes to creating jobs, we have more faith in the government".
I see another spin on this issue: the US' willingness to take on the tougher jobs and let its smaller allies still in on the action. There's something to be said for taking the bulk of the risk, while protecting your friends at the same time. Mind you, the greater the risk, the greater the reward (and I don't mean the oil, you leftist goon).
#4
I have such high respect for the Poles going back to the days of Walesa and Solidarity. And let us not forget that the brave but overmatched Poles battled the Nazis with antiquated artillery and horses while the Vichy France laid out their best china for Hitler.
#8
The Deutsche Welle has some interesting insight about Poland and Iraq
"Though the high-profile role allotted Poland might appear to some as simple quid pro quo for Warsawâs largely unconditional support for the United States before and during the war, Washington is also making use of extensive Polish ties to Iraq that have been built up over decades.
For the past 12 years, Poland has represented U.S. interests at its embassy in Baghdad after America closed its own diplomatic representation down during the 1991 Gulf War.
Warsawâs own ties with Iraq have been strong ever since the 1970s. It was then that around 80,000 Poles worked in Iraq as engineers, doctors and oil industry technicians. At the same time much of Iraqâs elite went to Poland to study, meaning that quite a few Iraqis speak Polish."
You might be interested to know that Poland is pushing for a joint Polish-Danish-German role in Iraq. This does make sense as the three countries already have a joint corps under NATO command.
This could be an interesting development. While Poland is certainly proud of its new role in the world it doesn't want to put off Germany, its most important neighbor and trading partner. The Germans could actually participate under NATO command (same as in Kosovo). Mr Struck, German defense minister, met Rumsfeld today in Washington. I guess these things were discussed there.
If the Germans come on board again this would certainly piss of France even more. And it would strengthen German ties with Eastern Europe. This should be very well in the interest of the United States because it would weaken the new Franco-German alliance quite a bit. And the French would learn that Germany will always have more options than they have.
#10
What do you think the Turks are making of all of this? Does it ease pressures there to have the imperialist Yankees off of their border, or does it make things worse having Polish special forces who might be less willing to put down the rowdy Kurds when they talk about Kurdistan.
#11
...also in Operation Market Garden at Arnhem and the Italian Campaign in WWII
...and also Haiti in 1994, though I'm not sure if that's good or bad.
What do you think the Turks are making of all of this?
The last encounter between the Poles & Turks didn't end too well for the Turks as they were routed from the gates of Vienna by the Polish king Jan Sobieski in the 1600s (1683?). Coincidentally this was supposed to be the last Crusade against the Jihadic army lead by Kara Mustafa.
#12
The Siege of Vienna was won by Jan Sobieski on September 12th, by our calendar. Moving between our calendar and the Islamic lunar calendar, that could also be our September 11th (there are two different methods used to calculate).
That battle is considered to be the beginning of the end of the Ottoman Empire.
It was 1683, btw, your memory is fine.
Posted by: Kathy K ||
05/05/2003 20:55 Comments ||
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The Poles have been resisting the expansion of Islam for a very long time.
#14
I like the idea of Polish-Danish-German role in Iraq. Germany is clearly trying to make amends and this would be a fine way to get back on board.
There's no room on the train for the French, but I'm willing to let bygones-be-bygones with the Germans, since they didn't work to screw us over with the relish the French did.
Posted by: R. McLeod ||
05/06/2003 3:33 Comments ||
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The Poles also stopped the Cossack armies and put a serious hurt on Mongol Expansion.
#16
Gen Tadeusz Kosciusko, US Revolutionary War ... Warsaw Ghetto ... defense of Vienna, 1529 ... cracking the German Enigma machine, 1938 ... they've been on our side a lot longer than some supposed 'allies.'
Posted by: Sofia ||
05/07/2003 9:34 Comments ||
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Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Bush will discuss possible cooperation in missile defense when they meet this month at St. Petersburg's 300th anniversary celebration, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Sunday. Moscow said in January that it had proposed a draft ``political agreement'' for the two nations to cooperate in developing defenses against ballistic missiles. It released no details of the proposal but said it hopes Washington would agree to the deal. There has been no U.S. comment on the proposal. "George, here's the deal. You give us the technology we need to build a defense that can shoot down your missiles. And we'll need about $40 billion or so to build it."
"And what do we get, Vladimir?"
"We'll keep our word to disarm. And you know you can always take me at my word!"
"Um, we'll get back to you."
Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said Sunday that missile defense was to be discussed in the context of the latest U.S.-Russian arms treaty, which is expected to be ratified by the Russian legislature before the celebration at the end of May. The treaty, which Putin and Bush signed in May 2002, calls on both nations to cut their strategic nuclear arsenals by about two-thirds, to 1,700 to 2,200 deployed warheads, by 2012. ``It is a very serious issue which, we think, will be a very important channel for further interaction and strategic military partnership between Russia and the United States,'' Yakovenko was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency. He said that Washington and Moscow could cooperate on so-called theater missile defense, Interfax reported. Except they don't need one, and we do.
Russia opposed the U.S. withdrawal last year from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which banned nationwide missile defenses of the type the Bush administration wants to build. Reiterating criticism of the U.S. move earlier this year, Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Russia was eager to cooperate with NATO partners in developing defenses against short-range missiles. On Sunday, Yakovenko also said that Moscow was pushing for a new U.N. treaty to ban weapons in space and at space facilities. Yuri Koptev, the head of Russia's space agency, said that the United States wanted to militarize space. ``This is a destabilizing factor,'' Interfax quoted Koptev as saying. ``If such programs are developed, our doctrine and plans will have to be reviewed in order to deal with the potential threat.'' Is this a back-door attempt to stop our missile defense system?
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/05/2003 12:25 am ||
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#1
Why would we want to give them any of our technology, which we KNOW works now.
Here's the deal Vlad:
1. Admit you made a mistake, apologize for not supporting us in Iraq and tell us everything about what Russia did for Saddam.
2. You put down Kimmie in North Korea, he's your problem anyway...and the main reason you need a missile defense.
You do those two things, maybe we talk. But you don't get our technology...ever.
Posted by: R. McLeod ||
05/05/2003 4:14 Comments ||
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Unless we elect another president like Bill Clinton (Hillary comes to mind) who would be willing to give technology away for campaign contributions.
#5
Share all the weapon technology with the country which is run by Mafia all the way to the top! Sign me up!
I think I want to move to Canada
Posted by: Fem Fatalle ||
05/09/2004 18:47 Comments ||
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#6
You can't believe much of what you read in Al-Guardian--as if they would know about these top secret negotiations.
I doubt President Bush will give Vladimir much, particularly after Putin staged those war games and the missiles failed to deploy.
I think that Bush likes Putin a lot as a person, knows he has "issues" with democracy and realizes that Russia is still a problem, albeit not the problem it was before 1990.
And Russia provides opportunities for us, too--people, oil, trade, etc.
Posted by: Jen ||
05/09/2004 18:59 Comments ||
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Muslim leaders have named the director of the Mosque of Paris to lead a new committee representing Islam's diverse factions in France. Dalil Boubakeur, rector of the Mosque of Paris, had been expected to win the post based on a December agreement by Muslim leaders. After a vote, the 60-member body on Sunday officially confirmed his post and those of 16 others on a leadership committee. The group is intended to serve as a link between the French government and Muslim leaders, and to thwart the growth of Islamic fundamentalism. Oh, chortle. Yeah, sure it will.
Islam is the second largest religion with the greatest proportion of nutbags, rustics and wild-eyed lunatics in France, after Roman Catholicism. About five million people in France are Muslim out of a population of 60 million. Until now, France's Muslims have been led by diverse squabbling groups, associations and federations backed variously by Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia - former French colonies. All of whom have now decided to get along and bury the hatchet -- into French necks.
Boubakeur faced a setback when Muslim leaders held an election for the committee in April and he had a weak performance, winning fewer seats than two other parties. 'cause he wasn't wild-eyed enough for the voters.
A fundamentalist Muslim party made an unexpectedly strong showing in the April vote. The Union of Islamic Organizations of France is inspired by Egypt's banned fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood. A slightly less conservative party close to Morocco also won more seats than Boubakeur's moderate, Algerian-backed Mosque of Paris, which had been considered the favorite. After discussion, the leaders agreed to honor the earlier agreement on Boubakeur's leadership. "So here's the deal, Dalil, you're going to be the figgerhead, hokay? You talk purty to them Frogs over at the Ministry, and we'll take care of bidness. And if ya don't like that deal, we'll literally make ya a figgerhead."
"Um, okay, you gotta deal."
The committee met for the first time this weekend. Previous efforts to form such a body have failed because of internal differences over how to set up the Islamic Republic of Frogistan.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/05/2003 12:17 am ||
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#1
Zut! I guess my write-in campaign didn't work. I promised them "Liberace-Ewes-Frat-Boys" back in March. I even stitched up some Franistan flags, which insh'Blogger should be ... Ici!
#6
Regarding the statement: "Islam is the second largest religion in France, after Roman Catholicism." I would wager that Islam is, by far, the most active and influential religion in France given that the Roman Catholic church hasn't had active participation in for several generations. I remember attending mass in France and Belgium. It was alarming how sparse and elderly the congregation was on a Sunday. And this was in 1985!
[The door flies open and Cardinal Ximinez of Spain [Palin] enters, flanked by two junior cardinals. Cardinal Biggles [Jones] has goggles pushed over his forehead. Cardinal Fang [Gilliam] is just Cardinal Fang]
Ximinez: NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition! Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency.... Our *three* weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency...and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope.... Our *four*...no... *Amongst* our weapons.... Amongst our weaponry...are such diverse elements as fear, surprise....
Senate Releases 50-Year-Old McCarthy Transcripts Edited for Brevity. I have to question why this story is getting such big play today? Is it being pushed because it buttresses the liberal arguments that conservatives are using McCarthy-like tactics to impugn and punish Hollywood liberals and assorted leftists? (A charge which is untrue by the way. Accusing one of using McCarthy-like tactics is, itself, McCarthy-like.) Note that the Venona decrypts, released several years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, shed the bright light on the truth. America was being subsumed by communist infiltrators in the State Department and Hollywood and many of McCarthy's allegations were indeed correct.
Pushing an anti-communist crusade that riveted America a half century ago, Joseph McCarthy manipulated his Senate hearings by calling witnesses he could intimidate and ignoring those likely to oppose him, newly released transcripts show. Among the nearly 500 witnesses covered in transcripts of closed door meetings, made public Monday by the Senate, are composer Aaron Copland, New York Times journalist James Reston and Eslanda Goode Robeson, the wife of blacklisted singer-actor Paul Robeson. Some 4,000 pages of newly released documents also show that McCarthy was convinced that many writers, government officials and secretaries had access to classified information.
McCarthy, a Wisconsin Republican, chaired the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in 1953 and 1954 at the height of the Cold War with the Soviet Union. His investigation into communists in the U.S. government, denounced by critics as a witch hunt, spawned the term "McCarthyism" to describe smear attacks. The senators who oversaw the project, Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Carl Levin, D-Mich., unveiled the transcripts Monday in the very room that McCarthy used to hold some of his hearings. Susan Collins is starting to piss me off. Why doesn't she just cross the aisle and join the Democrats?
"We hope that the excesses of McCarthyism will serve as a cautionary tale for future generations," Collins said.
"We hope everyone will be nice."
Copland, brought before the subcommittee because he had been hired by the State Department to lecture overseas, was one of those never called back for a public session. When McCarthy asked whether he had ever been a communist sympathizer, Copland replied, "I am not sure I would be able to say what you mean by the word 'sympathizer." Ah, so this is where Clinton got his parsing skills.Copland was not only a sypathizer, he WAS a Communist.
Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman, a freshman Republican who chairs the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, said in a statement that McCarthy had "an obligation to use his authority in a way to make America safer, and determine the influence of communism, if it existed, in American policy."
Oshinsky said communists had indeed infiltrated the government during the 1930s and 1940s, but by the time McCarthy launched his investigation that had pretty much been stamped out. No, this last phrase is not true. The Communists were still quite active.
#2
Remember, when one of those Hollywood communists go broke because we all get sick of hearing about how much they care about the common man from the comfort of Bel Aire or the Hamptons, it will be the fault of 'McCarthism.' that devastating ideology, where the truth is demanded and alliegence to the country that put them in their sumptuous comforts is required.
EFL
Calm has returned to the fishing community of Shippagan after a weekend crab protest caused millions of dollars in damage. Rioters burned boats and buildings on Saturday, but police say the town was peaceful overnight. Federal Fisheries Minister Robert Thibault says he was "shocked and saddened" by the arson and vandalism, but says his department bears no blame for the unrest. The protest began on Friday night when a mob burned about 100 crab traps on the town's wharf and escalated on Saturday afternoon when about 250 people roamed the streets for nine hours, burning boats and buildings. The men and women were protesting Ottawa's decision to reduce their snow crab quota and increase the number of licenses allowed to fish the lucrative species. The RCMP say they did not anticipate the violence and did not have enough officers to stop the destruction. Oh right, we've heard that one before!
Posted by: Steve ||
05/05/2003 01:45 pm ||
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Shock and Awe⢠tactics of crab fishermen because they can't get crabs.........snow that is......
Nothing like burning up expensive crabbing boats to get one's point across...
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/05/2003 14:12 Comments ||
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#2
And now the Minister of Fisheries (appointed by Chretien) says he will reconsider and raise the quota. Course now the boats are gone. Probably expect government handout for new boats.
This is the same clown who last week declared the Newfoundland Cod an endangered species.
Fishing is an enviromental disaster, but the politios are afraid to tell the fishermen its over. Just keep em on the dole. Morons.
Posted by: john ||
05/05/2003 19:09 Comments ||
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Pakistan is ready to get rid of its nuclear arsenal if uneasy neighbor India also does, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Monday. ``As far as Pakistan is concerned, if India is ready to denuclearize, we would be happy to denuclearize,'' Aziz Ahmed Khan said. ``But it will have to be mutual.'' "You first!"
Pakistan and India declared themselves nuclear powers after detonating atomic devises in 1998. Neither arsenal is open to inspections and it's not known exactly what either Pakistan or India possesses. Pakistan says it developed its nuclear arsenal in response to the perceived threat from India. ``Our position has been that we were forced into the situation because of Indian nuclear ambitions,'' he said. "It's your fault we are nuke armed lunatics!"
Estimates I've seen put the Pak numbers at 50, India's at 35. But I have no idea how reliable those numbers are...
The two South Asian neighbors have fought three wars since the end of British rule of the subcontinent in 1947. Two of those wars have been over the disputed Kashmir region. The international community has been pressing the two neighbors to hold peace talks to end their relentless bickering fearing it could escalate into a nuclear confrontation. The Islamic street will never let the Paks deal away their nukes, at least not until another Islamic country has them.
There's also the fact that Pak has lost three out of three of those wars and has an almost idolatrous fixation on their "Islamic nukes." I don't see anything here other than wind and posing.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/05/2003 08:58 am ||
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This is indeed bullshit. Pakland had nukes long before India did. Although India did carry out nuclear tests in the early 1970s they never actually kept a supply of nukes. After Pakistan started supporting the insurgency in the early 1990s, India threatened to retaliate and there was a 'nuclear threat' from Pakistan. This is why India decided to carry out the tests in 1998. There is a lot of disinformation that pakistan carried out their nuclear tests in resonse to India's when if fact its the other way round.
Besides this, India's main perceived nuclear threat is China and not Pakland. India won't give up its nukes unless there is a complete global disarmament, in other words it will never happen.
#2
BS or not, encourage this. ANYWAY we can get an Islamic nation to destroy WMD is good. I'm not comfortable with India's nuclear status anyway. Their longstanding animosity toward Pak is just ripe for an ultranationalist Indian gov't to decide just how badly India wants Kashmir. That inevitible war needs to stay conventional.
Our counterbalance to China, in that region, is Taiwan (read us).
Posted by: Scott ||
05/05/2003 15:04 Comments ||
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#3
Actually India for quite awhile had always been a regional counterweight to China's ambitions. If India were to give up its nukes, China would still have theirs and you can be guaranteed a lot more of those are aimed at them than at us in the U.S. Unfortunately that doesn't mean I regard anyone in that region as relatively responsible folks in regards to having nuclear capability. Sorry guys but in my view I'd rather India, Pakistan AND China have ZERO nukes (and just as importantly North Korea but thats another category)
Not quite India but close enough. Feel free to move this, Fred.
The few times we've had anything from Lanka and Bangla, I've put them under India-Pak. Close enough.
For more than 14 months, the guns have been silent in Sri Lanka's northern war zone after the government and the Tamil Tiger rebels signed a Norwegian-brokered cease-fire. But the rebels' sudden decision April 21 to stop participating in peace talks has awakened fears that war may soon return to this tropical South Asian island. That usually happens when the boys go home and pick up their guns.
The rebels said they suspended the peace talks because the government was not doing enough to normalize the area, particularly removing the military from city centers and the airport. The military is hesitant because it would have to fight its way back in if the talks fail and war resumes, as has happened twice before. Fool me once, ...
When the British left Sri Lanka in 1948, Jaffna was a vibrant city with graceful colonial buildings, elegant Christian churches, Hindu temples and an enterprising Tamil minority. But ethnic tensions were already simmering, with the Tamils alleging discrimination by Sri Lanka's dominant Sinhalese. After a massacre of Tamils in 1983, a Tamil uprising began in the north. The Tamils demanded equal rights and a separate homeland. From 1990 to 1995, the rebels, who are formally known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, ran a virtually independent state in the Jaffna area until the military pushed them into the jungles farther south. Since then, Jaffna has been under government control, while parts of the surrounding 1,000-square-mile peninsula have been ruled by the Tigers. The rebels have their own police, civil administration, jails, customs, courts and navy. There are 40,000 to 50,000 government troops on the peninsula and an estimated 6,000 to 10,000 Tamil Tigers, which holds regular exercises to display their weapons and parade their "Black Tiger" suicide bombers. Nasty bastards; these boomers usually get who they're going after.
In the latest peace talks, the rebels said they would give up their demand for independence and settle for autonomy under a federal system. Doubts remain about the Tigers' sincerity because of their history of breaking truces and their traditional opposition to democracy.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/05/2003 12:49 am ||
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#1
ah c'mon it's still south asia. pak, ind, sri, bhutan, bangla, and nepal. I figure just clump it together,
#2
Aren't tamils tigers hinduists who used(?)to receive support from China & Pakistan (funny, considering their fondness of suicide bombers), while others tamils factions (marxists) AND regular army (loyal to the buddhist gvt) were supported by India. could someone knowledgable, rg117 or other, please shed some light on this weird order of alliances?
#3
Must be the Chillies. Tamils eat really hot food, may be it fried their brains.
Seriously though, in the beginning the LTTE was supported by India, in fact it was a creation of RAW (Indian Intellifence Agency). There is a still of a lot of support for LTTE amongst the Tamil population in India.
India sent peacekeepers during the last ceasefire but when the LTTE broke the truce a few thousand Indian troops were killed. As you can imagine, they don't get on too well since then. A few years later one of their black tigers (she was one ugly bitch) assasinated Rajiv Gandhi a former PM of India. They really know how to piss of people.
Another possible bio-weapons van has been found. But ya know what, it doesn't matter cause 1) already confirms what the right has already suspected and 2) the left will not care/discredit it/believe the govt planted it/do everything in their power to not believe such is possible.
Posted by: Tom ||
05/05/2003 09:52 pm ||
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#1
Say Tom, nice website and all, but please use the "source" line in the Guest Posting for the original source and not your website. Makes it one click easier! Thanks,
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/05/2003 21:58 Comments ||
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IRNA -- A group of Basra residents revealed on Friday evening that some political parties in Iraq have during the past weeks resorted to promising, threatening, and even bribing the people in order to gain their support.
No! That's certainly never happened before...
They said that Iraq's Communist Party, known as "Shoyou'ie", for instance, that has faced broad indifference of the public towards its plans, has started paying dollars and promising positions at government offices if its candidates will be elected during the upcoming elections to the youth who will vote for them. Saleh Kazem Mohsen, 27, a Basra resident, says, "I myself was witness to similar approaches applied by Ahmad Chalabi's group, that enchanted their supporters with the dollars and the promises."
Guess there's no difference between him and the commies, then...
He asks, "How could such parties claim to be the supporters of the Iraqi nation, while they themselves have looted public properly and occupied government buildings that actually belong to the people. What is the difference between them and the foreigners that have occupied Iraq?" he asks.
If they're setting up an interim government, maybe they should only use interim government buildings...
Al-Kahim Mahmoud, 47, another Basra resident, says, "If Saddam was a dictator, he was at least providing the daily requirements of the people, while these groups, with the promises that have vowed to keep, must sell Iraq's oil for many years and not buy any food or medicine, in order to keep them." The IRNA correspondent in Basra believes the people in southern parts of Iraq have already lost their trust in Iraqi political parties and their leaders, and most people try to stay away from the political parties and groups.
Sure. Sure. They're waiting for Khomeini...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/05/2003 03:13 pm ||
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This isn't Basra. It's the south side of Chicago!
U.S. soldiers emerged into sunlight after exploring one of Saddam Hussein's most elaborate tunnel complexes Sunday, bewildered by a single question: Why did the Iraqi leader build an entire oil refinery inside a mountain? Blueprints scattered on the floor of a dusty office in the complex indicate construction started in December 1980, three months after the start of the Iraq-Iran war. But whether the refinery was encased in rock for security or other reasons wasn't immediately clear to soldiers of the 4th Infantry Division. "Maybe it was Saddam's personal gas plant. I don't know what it is," said Maj. Edward Chesney, 40, operations officer for the 3rd Battalion, 66th Armored Regiment, who oversaw infantry searching room after room of the complex by flashlight. Invisible from the main highway, the refinery's entrance is reached by an access road running through a Special Republican Guard camp. The entrance is pocked by shrapnel from American bombs from the 1991 Gulf War - one of which sits unexploded and rusting outside - but inside, the thick, reinforced concrete ceilings of the complex show no damage.
My guess is that Sammy watched one too many movies featuring a super-villian with an impregnable fortress...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/05/2003 01:56 pm ||
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New Zealand troops could be in Iraq by mid-winter that's summer in Iraq
as part of a stabilisation force, possibly under Nato command, if the United Nations approves such a force. Prime Minister Helen Clark said resolutions were being drafted and could be before the Security Council within four weeks. She said yesterday after her return from Europe and Britain that New Zealand would be an enthusiastic participant in the post-war effort, beyond the mine-clearing and humanitarian aid already offered. "We are not being passive. We're being very active in discussion with a lot of people. It is understood by the UK and by the US that a lot of nations are willing to help, but they are looking for some kind of multilateral cover."
ANZUS isn't multilateral enough?
She expected that "room of some kind will be created for those who have the kinds of concerns that we have. At the point that the space is created to do more, we will do more." Sounds good as long as Kofi is not involved.
The can-do attitude is a contrast to earlier Government views, which not only disapproved of the war but would not endorse anything but a United Nations-led peacekeeping force. The softening began soon after Helen Clark apologised to US President George W. Bush for suggesting the war would not have happened under a Democrat presidency. We've had plenty of differences with NZ in the past, particularly on nukes. But they're still helping out just as they did in Afghanistan. This leaves Canada as the only one of the great English speaking nations not involved. Not coincidentally, they elected a French speaking PM.
#1
Actually, Canada has offered to send troops and legal experts to Iraq at our request. The PM was hesitant at first, but after the continuous nagging by the Deputy PM and the Defense Minister (as well as the constant objections by the Foreign Minister, who is a complete nimrod), he gave in.
A little known fact is that Canada had 31 troops actively participate in this war (due to a troop exchange with the US and UK militaries), even though Chretien vehemently opposed it.
Frankly, I canât count enough days until that clown leaves office. Unfortunately, his successor doesnât seem to be that much better.
#2
Sorry, first I missed that the Canadians were coming. Second, for some reason I thought that an earlier lefty NZ government had pulled out of the ANZUS treaty because it obligated them to let nuclear armed ships dock in its ports. It turns out it is still in force on paper though we have abrogated our obligations towards NZ because of their no-nukes stance.
#4
Among other forces, NZ has an SAS like the Aussies. I believe that some of their people in Afghanistan were integrated with the Aussie units that went over there. Supposedly these forces, though small in number, made a significant contribution to the success of Enduring Freedom.
Iraqi National Congress (INC) leader Ahmad Chalabi has taken possession of 25 tons of documents from Saddam Hussein's secret police, some of them onerous for the Jordanian royal family, Newsweek reported in its latest edition. "It's a huge thing. Some of the files are very damning," Chalabi told Newsweek in an interview, implying that some of the most incriminating material concerned Jordan's King Abdullah. The monarch, who has ruled Jordan since 1999, "is worried about his relationship with Saddam. He's worried about what might come out," Chalabi told Newsweek. Chalabi built and lost a banking empire in Jordan in the 1980s. After he was forced to flee the kingdom, he was convicted in absentia of fraud and embezzlement. Revenge is a dish best served cold.
King Abdullah has recently said Ahmad Chalabi should not be in Iraq's new leadership because of embezzlement charges against him in Jordan and because of his long absence from Iraq. âWhat contacts does he have with the people on the street?â King Abdullah asked. Abdullah helped us out, hope we don't let a little personnel disagreement get in the way. This may just be a threat to get the Jordanians to back off on their lack of support for Chalabi.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/05/2003 10:41 am ||
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#1
Chalabi worries me. He is more interested in his personal vendettas than in meaningful nation-building.
#3
I dont think chalabi is worried so much about past vendettas, as the people saying nasty stuff about him now as part of maneuvering. Only makes sense hed do some countermaneuvering.
Ironic that Chalabi is attacked for being long out of the country, by a monarch who spent years outside of Jordan pursuing higher education, et al.
#5
There's going to be so much come out from the files of Saddam Hussein that hardly anyone will be untouched. I just hope that what comes out doesn't cause irreparable harm to people we NEED to trust right now. All this is also going to make establishing a working interim government that much more difficult. Unfortunately, there's no way to stop the information from becoming widely known. There are just too many files in unsecured locations, and just about anybody that can has already found things they can use.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/05/2003 15:46 Comments ||
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Yassir, work w/me here, you give Israel this and we give you, say, Jordan? After all, the queen is Palestinian. And we'll have Iraq give you good price on the oil.
On Friday, U.S. Central Command announced the capture of three Saddam aides. The command said two of them were members of the Revolutionary Command Council and the third was the director of Iraq's weapons development program. All three were captured on Thursday. The captured aides were identified as Abdul Tawwab Al-Mulla Howeish, director of the Office of Military Industrialization. The Office of Military Industrialization was responsible for the development of Iraq's most lethal weapons. Huwaysh was listed as No. 16 on the U.S. most-wanted list.
That's a pretty nice snag...
The other two Iraqis were Taha Muhyl al Din Maruf, vice president and a member of the Revolutionary Command Council. Maruf was No. 42 on the U.S. list of 55 most wanted Iraqis. The United States also captured Mizban Khadr Hadi, another Revolutionary Command Council member who had been an adviser to Saddam since the early 1980s. Hadi was No. 41 on the U.S. list.
Posted by: Becky ||
05/05/2003 09:54 am ||
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#2
And this morning, it has been announced that "Mrs. Anthrax" was caught. With a name such as that, do you think she gets invited to many dinner parties? And who gets to sit next to her?
#4
Is Mrs Anthrax related to Dr Germ, or are they the same woman?
Posted by: Jon ||
05/05/2003 17:19 Comments ||
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Jon, different women â not related. Mrs. Anthrax is Dr. Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, the 5 of Hearts and Number 53 on the Hit Parade (and one of only two shown saluting). At one time she was head of the biological laboratories for Iraq's military, and has served as president of Iraqi's microbiology society and as a dean at the University of Baghdad. In 2001 she became the first and only woman elected to the âinner circleâ â the highest policymaking body in the Baath Party, the Regional Command.
âDr. Germâ aka âBug Ladyâ aka âToxic Tahaâ is Dr. Rihab Taha. Taha was head of Iraq's biological weapons program for seven years, until 1995, when she retired. On her watch two thousand liters of aflatoxin were produced (causes liver cancer.), as was gas gangrene, which causes skin to melt away. Her team also grew 19,000 liters of botulinum toxin, a food poison that swells the tongue and suffocates its victim. In February the BBC reported that UN weapons inspectors at one time discovered munitions filled with these agents dumped in a river, proving they had indeed been weaponised. While Dr. Taha herself is not on the list of most wanted, her husband, General Amer Mohammed Rashid was Number 47 â the 6 of Spades. He had been in charge of Iraq's missile development program, and was later appointed Minister of Oil. He surrendered on April 29. Dr. Germâs whereabouts are still unknown.
Coalition forces have captured one of Iraq's top biological weapons scientists, defense officials said Monday. Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, among the top 55 most wanted members of Saddam Hussein's fallen regime, was taken into custody on Sunday, a Defense Department official said. He had no other details about the development.
U.S. intelligence officials said that Ammash, 49, is believed to have played a key role in rebuilding Baghdad's biological weapons capability since the first Persian Gulf War in 1991. In one of several videos of Saddam released during the war, Ammash was the only woman among about a half-dozen men seated around a table. The videos were used as Iraqi propaganda as invading forces drew closer to Baghdad and it was not known when the meeting happened nor what was the significance of her visibility on camera. Now that we have her, we can find out, if she is willing to talk.
American officials say Ammash is among a new generation of leaders named by Saddam to leading posts within Iraq's Baath party. On the Pentagon's list the 55 most wanted, she is number 53 and referred to as the party's Youth and Trade Bureau Chairman. The U.S. officials said she was trained by Nassir al-Hindawi, described by United Nations inspectors as the father of Iraq's biological weapons program. Ammash has served as president of Iraqi's microbiological society and as dean at University of Baghdad. She's not "Dr. Germ", but she should have good intel.
DEBKA sez that Dr. Germ was turned over at the same time as the lovely Huda. Wotta sweet pair o' babes!
Posted by: Steve ||
05/05/2003 09:48 am ||
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EDITED
The London-based Al-Sharq Al Awsat daily said Saddam and his younger son, Qusay, executed Gen. Seif Eddin Al Rawi on April 8. The newspaper said Al Rawi, commander of the elite Republican Guards, was accused of treason and shot in the head and back. Shooting him in the back was just for the sake of symbolism.
The newspaper report appeared to indicate that Saddam had not intended to allow the rapid advance of the U.S. military toward Baghdad. Saddam had deployed six Republican Guard divisions around the Iraqi capital, Middle East Newsline reported. But two of the divisions, the Baghdad and Medina divisions, were neutralized by U.S. air attacks. The four other divisions were said to have failed to put up serious resistance. Pay attention NKOR's, this is the thanks you get for trying.
Posted by: Becky ||
05/05/2003 09:45 am ||
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EFL
An assembly of more than 200 people meeting under U.S. "auspices" elected a mayor and council for Iraq's northern capital Monday, May 5. "election" in the title, I can understand the Rooters scare quotes on, but "auspices"?
Amid strong U.S. military security, some 250 delegates listened to a speech by the top U.S. military official in the region before parting to choose the 24-member council, which will select a mayor from three independent candidates. How many candidiates in the last presidential "election"?
As the delegates left to choose their representatives, several of them announced to the media that they were withdrawing from the election in protest at the division of delegates along ethnic lines. We're Arabs, the master race, and should get all the delegates
Delegates elected an Arab mayor, a Kurdish deputy mayor and two assistant mayors from the Turkmen and Assyrian Christian communities. sounds pretty fair - problem with that mahmoud?
A 24-member city council also included representatives of the Yezidi and Shabak communities, two Kurdish sub-groups, and was "carefully" balanced to represent both the city and the surrounding countryside. The council comprises seven Arabs from inside the city and six from outside, three Kurds, two Assyrian Christians from inside the city and one from outside, one Turkmen and two retired army officers, one from the Shabak community and one Yezidi.
"I congratulate you on your achievement today," Major General David Petraeus, commanding officer of 101st Airborne Division told delegates after the election. "You have taken a major step forward for Mosul and Iraq. I want to thank the many citizens who worked with us to organize this meeting," he said. The new mayor, retired army general Ghanim al-Boso, pledged to work "closely" with the U.S.-led troops occupying the city. "closely"? Jeebus
"I promise that I will sincerely work with you and with the coalition for the well-being of Mosul and Iraq," he said. Basso, whose brother was killed by Saddam Hussein's ousted regime, stood against a retired police general and a doctor, also both Arabs, for the position of mayor. Each community met privately to elect its own representatives before the main election was held by ballot at the Social Club in Mosul. The electoral assembly was made up of 73 Arabs from the city, 82 Arabs from outside, 27 Kurds, 18 Assyrian Christians from inside Mosul and nine from outside, 15 Turkmens and 18 retired army and police officers, nine from the Shabak community and nine from the Yezidi. But U.S. commanders acknowledged that in the absence of any reliable recent census, there had been a certain amount of guesswork involved in estimating the relative strength of the different communities. "Numbers are arbitrary numbers based on what we think the population is," Petraeus's secretary, Lieutenant Jeanne Hull, told AFP Ms Hull sounds like a Chicago alderman
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/05/2003 08:50 am ||
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The Western oil workers who have made their way to the southern oil fields are amazed when they arrive at the refinery here and see the pile of rusted junk that the Iraqis have been using in the production of their greatest natural commodity. "They have suffered from a lack of investment," said Keith James, a British army warrant officer who also is an engineer for Shell UK, as he stared recently at an ancient cooling tower that was operating for the first time since before the war. "It's remarkable that it is still running. Some of this equipment is 30 to 40 years old. I haven't seen anything like this since I first got into the oil business."
Sammy sure had some nice palaces, though. For awhile...
Iraq, which has the second-largest oil reserves in the world, must replace much of the machinery being used if the country is to become self-sufficient, according to coalition officers and Iraq's South Oil Co. officials. James said rusty pipes and worn turbines that should have been replaced long ago have somehow been maintained and repaired by the refinery workers, who evidently were not given much support by the regime. "Saddam was a thief," said Jamal Dawoud, assistant manager of the refinery. "The way the old regime would think was they would put in as little as possible and take as much as they could get. There was no thinking about the long term." The old surprise meter definitely didn't twitch on that one.
The refinery just outside of Basra has a capacity of about 140,000 barrels per day. It is just beginning to get back online after a series of problems including a lack of crude oil coming through the pipelines and too few employees. Officials hoped to produce 70,000 barrels per day by early May. That would be enough to meet local consumption. About 3,000 of South Oil Co.'s 12,000 workers have returned to the job, and the company's top officers recently began doling out pay for the first time since before the war. U.S. Army officials have told South Oil Co. officers that they plan on handing out $20 in U.S. currency to the workers to supplement their paychecks, but the country's oil officials fear that could set a bad precedent. "Once you give them $20, this is something that will be expected," said Kassim Mohammed Ali, the Iraqi Oil Ministry's Basra representative. Cheeze, twenty bucks is about one barrel of oil. What was it they were saying about no long term thinking over there?
Further complicating matters is that many of the southern region's 800 to 900 oil wells have suffered salt and water contamination, he said, and it will take time to fix that problem. The refinery is running out of a chemical additive that is necessary for gasoline for local consumption. The chemical, which had been produced by a British chemical company, has been outlawed, and British army officials are trying to track down an alternative chemical. In the meantime, gasoline is being rationed, and the wait at the only two open gas stations in Basra is about eight hours. But for all the problems the refinery is having, officials say things could have been worse. Thaer Ibrahim, the refinery manager, said looting damage to the plant was minimal. From March 20 to April 10, workers armed with guns, sticks and fire hoses guarded the refinery and chased away thieves. "Of course, we feel proud of what we have done," Ibrahim said. "We have done something good for our country. If we want to bring Basra back, we need to be able to provide it with fuel." Let's make sure Thaer is high in the new Oil Ministry. Man sounds like he knew what to do.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/05/2003 12:55 am ||
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#1
The refinery is running out of a chemical additive that is necessary for gasoline for local consumption. The chemical, which had been produced by a British chemical company, has been outlawed, and British army officials are trying to track down an alternative chemical.
#2
"The way the old regime would think was they would put in as little as possible and take as much as they could get. There was no thinking about the long term."
In my experience in manufacturing, this sounds like many of the CEO's here in the U.S.
Posted by: Tom ||
05/05/2003 9:08 Comments ||
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#3
How 'bout some hidden barrels of good olde tetraethyl lead that nobody else can use?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/05/2003 14:33 Comments ||
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Abu Rusdan, the man who allegedly succeeded Abu Bakar Ba'asyir as acting leader of the Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) terror network, has been named a suspect in October's Bali bombings, national police spokesman Zainuri Lubis said here on Monday. "He officially became a suspect on Sunday," Zainuri said, as quoted by AFP. "Based on testimony from other witnesses, he was involved in the general planning of the Bali bombing," he added. He said Rusdan would be charged under a terrorism law passed in the wake of the October 12 bombings, which killed 202 people, and could face 20 years in jail or the death sentence if convicted. Police arrested Rusdan last month in the Central Java town of Kudus. National top detective Erwin Mappaseng said Rusdan took over as effective leader of JI when Ba'asyir was arrested last October 20.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/05/2003 10:11 pm ||
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The Philippine president on Monday condemned as terrorism an attack by Muslim rebels that killed 27 people in a southern town, and officials placed $96,000 bounties on the heads of several guerrilla leaders. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front took 57 hostages in an attack Sunday on Siocon town, seized the town hall and a hospital, and torched a market. The government regained control of the town later that day and all but three hostages have been released, Philippine military spokesman Lt. Col. Daniel Lucero said. The hostages were "evidently to be used as human shields," said Lt. Gen. Rodolfo Garcia, the military's vice chief of staff. Government troops on Sunday regained control of Siocon, a predominantly Christian town on Mindanao island after an attack by the separatist rebels. Lucero said 11 soldiers and police, and 10 civilians were killed as army troops backed by helicopter gunships fought off about 100 rebels. He said six rebels were killed. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo warned rebel leaders they would be held responsible for the attack. "The attack on a civilian community is an act of terrorism," she said. That's what terrorists do
Her government approved rewards of $96,000 each for the capture of several known MILF leaders, including chairman Hashim Salamat. Arroyo called on the rebels to turn over the perpetrators, adding that she has instructed government negotiators to raise the issue with leadership and demand that it renounce terrorism when the two sides meet Wednesday in Malaysia for preliminary talks aiming to restart formal peace talks stalled since last year. Formal peace talks would remain suspended because of the fighting, chief government negotiator Jesus Dureza said. Hard to have peace talks when only one side wants peace
Rebel spokesman Eid Kabalu said the attack was directed at an army battalion headquarters as part of the guerrillas' "active defense posture" in the face of a continuing military offensive. "We are trying to avoid these collateral damages, but it's difficult to avoid because the civilians are mixed with the military in the same area," Kabalu said. "So we just shoot everyone"
He vowed the rebels would keep attacking unless officials meet their demands, including returning a captured rebel camp and withdrawing criminal charges against rebel leaders. How about no!
Presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye dismissed Kabalu's claim, saying "burning the public market is not part of defensive posturing, and we can see the high number of civilian casualties." Siocon Mayor Cesar Soriano said his town of 50,000 people was struggling to recover from the attack. "If you can see the faces of our people here, even in the streets they are crying and you cannot help but feel very sad," he said in a radio interview.
In another incident, also on Sunday, the separatists ambushed three military trucks carrying soldiers' wives and children in Matanog town, 528 miles southeast of Manila, officials said. Two soldiers and another soldier's wife were wounded while three guerrillas were killed, the army's 6th Infantry Division chief Maj. Gen. Generoso Senga said. Oh, this was a real bright move. Guess you do have a death wish.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/05/2003 02:21 pm ||
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#1
None of this was necessary. If Gloria Arroyo had let our guys in to finish the job, this would not have happened - the Muslim terrorists would have been too busy trying to stay alive. Instead, she gave us the finger even when we offered to help her with the problem. Net result is that the Philippines has a higher body count than the Afghanistan clean-up.
Singapore's prime minister left Sunday for Washington to sign a free trade agreement - the first such pact between the United States and an Asian country. The deal is being touted as a way for Washington to increase its economic presence and visibility in Southeast Asia, which may help it engage millions of Muslims in the region. A staunch U.S. ally, Singapore's support for the war in Iraq has contrasted with the vocal opposition coming from its predominantly Muslim neighbors, Malaysia and Indonesia. "Hey guys! You there in Indonesia and Malaysia! Yes, you. This is how we treat our friends. Iraq is how we treat our enemies. Think 'bout it, 'kay?"
``Winning over Muslim hearts and minds is very important,'' especially in the wake of the Iraq war,'' Singapore Trade Minister George Yeo said in a speech at the National Press Club in Washington last week. ``It is important that they see in globalization and freer trade a message of hope for themselves and their beliefs.'' What a smart fella.
Conceived during a golf game between Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong and then-U.S. President Bill Clinton, the U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreement will wipe out tariffs and other trade barriers on about $33 billion in annual trade between the two nations. The pact is scheduled to be signed by Goh and President Bush on Tuesday. The United States is Singapore's largest foreign direct investor and its second-largest trading partner. There are about 1,300 U.S. companies in Singapore. Singapore is the United State's 11th largest trading partner, but because Singapore imposes virtually no import tariffs, the U.S. advantage will be in greater access to the financial and other service sectors in one of Asia's main financial centers. It will also offer the United States a blueprint for similar pacts with other Asian nations. For Singapore, a city-state of 4 million people with virtually no natural resources, the agreement will mean tariff savings of about $110 million a year as all U.S. import duties are lifted. We'll get this back ten times over in the next couple of years.
Singapore's "natural resources" consist of some very smart and well-educated people — and an orderly society.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/05/2003 12:12 am ||
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#1
Singapore up, Chile down. See how it works?
But come on, most of us probably still associate the place with this.
#3
I think it's a mistake to be holding back free trade over a spat with Iraq; there are other ways to make the Chileans pay than to limit free trade which has tangible benefits for the United States.
Posted by: Brian ||
05/05/2003 6:40 Comments ||
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Meanwhile... Dr Mahatir has laid plans for Malaysia to remonetise gold as a settlement currency between Muslim nations...
it is an attempt to create their own trading block and give a big F* You to the US$.
They see the weakness inherent in the US paper money. They see the disproportionately huge supply of US dollars coupled with an enormous Current Account Deficit and a massive new bond issue.
They see the rising Euro and realise the gold market is a threat to the US dollar, and they realise they can in one fell swoop damage the US economy and create an Islamic trading block based on traditional Islamic monetary principles: the Gold Islamic Dinar.
#6
"Dr." Mahathir of Malaysia sees himself as an economist. He sees a future in mercantilism as opposed to free trade. That is his prerogative. The interesting aspect of the region's economic history is that Malaysia and Singapore were at parity at independence from British rule about 40 years ago. (Singapore seceded from Malaysia after contentious ethnic disputes, but shared with Malaysia the excellent administrative and physical infrastructure left behind by British colonial administrators). Today, Singapore's GDP per capita is about triple Malaysia's. The difference in economic policies is stark - Malaysia adopted a mercantilistic import substitution policy, whereas Singapore adopted a free trade policy.
The loopy economic ideas espoused by Mahathir and his predecessors have contributed to Malaysian underperformance except with respect to its Muslim counterparts. It would be a good thing if he actually goes through with this - another weak Muslim country is not necessarily a bad thing. The funny thing is, Malaysia's claim to fame in the world financial markets is the inept gambling of its central bank on the currency markets, during which its Bank Negara lost billions of dollars betting the wrong way.
#8
Question. Singapore is one of the largest trade hubs in the world. Would all of the trade going through Singapore be counted in this free-trade deal, or just trade initiated in Singapore?
#9
Bilateral trade agreements can become paperwork nightmares, just identifying country of origin of goods and controlling the value added components of product. Singapore has no natural resources (other than labor)and so imports many primary products of assembly. Whether it is the chips for the circuit board, or the board in the computer, or the computer in the microwave oven, only the Singapore value added would apply under trade rules.
Posted by: john ||
05/05/2003 19:57 Comments ||
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Source: Ayobi.com, Translated by JUS
The official website of Ansar Al-Islam released an audio message from Helkoard Ahmed, a prominent member in the headquarter of Ansar Al-Islam. The message that was released in Kurdish illustrated the situation of the group after it had evacuated its locations and moved to the mountains. The message shed lights on some key points:
1. The Ansar Al-Islam Mujahedeen who gained the honor of martyrdom in the recent battles are estimated to be 70 whereas the Americans and the Jalal Talabani militia incurred greater losses that can be twice as much as the Mujahedeen's or even more .
2. The Mujahedeen evacuated their locations because of the brutal American bombing beside the weakening of their defense lines as a result of the Jamaat Islami departure from their areas for the benefit of the Jalal Talbani militia.
3. The claims of Colin Powell about the chemical weapons factories in the area have proven to be false. The Americans have stopped talking about this issue even though it was a pretext for launching their aggression.
4. The Mujahedeen confirm that they will continue on the road of Jihad, and the losses they incurred are normal in such battles with well prepared enemies. The headquarter of Ansar Al-Islam decided to change its fighting strategy to cope with the current stage, and it will adopt Guerrilla war in their fighting after they evacuated all their locations.
5. Helkoard Ahmed asked all Muslims and Mujahideen to be patient and not to lose hope despite the plights the whole Islamic Ummah encounters. He called for remembering the battle of Uhud during the Prophet Muhamed's (peace be upon him) era when the infidels won the fight. He described this situation as an unsuccessful round that will be followed by victories and domination.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/05/2003 11:48 am ||
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Check out the groups involved in supporting the endless war against the "endless war on terror."
What I find particularly troubling is that many of these groups have no business whatsoever being involved in anti-war protests. What does a housing group have to do with Iraq? Or a tenants council? Or gay-lesbian groups? Nothing. Except that it's fun and they've got less important things to do during their "work days." Maybe they ought to read the mission statements of those organizations for a change.
I know the mentality of people in such groups. They're looking for meaning in their lives. They almost never have families or any kind of job that actually accomplishing anything. So they find their meaning being against "the man." Their little tenants council or gay women against body shaving groups are totally ineffectual but it makes them feel like their doing something of value. But their "work" has no real value, and it adds nothing to the society. Their frustrated and angry and protesting is a great adrenalin rush, they're doing something.
It's pathetic and hilarious.
The most marginal of marginals...
Posted by: R. McLeod ||
05/06/2003 3:51 Comments ||
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IRNA -- Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Ahmad Masjed Jamei said on Saturday that freedom of the press will prevent the accumulation of negative anxieties in society. The minister added that freedom of the press is a lengthy process unattainable through political decision-making. Speaking on the World Day of Freedom of the Press commemorated in Iranian Journalists Association, he added that the challenge interfering the promotion of such a freedom can only be tackled by dialogue and proper analysis of the present status of the press in the country. The minister said that the close assessment of the press laws, freedom and limits of its task is effective in institutionalizing freedom of the press. Referring to `Independence', `Freedom' and `Islamic Republic' as three distinct principles of the constitution, he said that independence and freedom complement one another.
Whereas "Islamic Republic" doesn't...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/05/2003 04:01 pm ||
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Gary Hart recently paid a visit to our editorial board here in Dallas. He was singularly unimpressive, if you ask me. Isn't this what Donna Rice said, also?
He whined that the country was going to have on offer a series of Democratic candidates who were self-selected based on the ability to raise money, thus depriving the nation of a campaign based on "ideas." Of course, it is almost certainly the case that the reason Sen. Hart doesn't have any money to run for president is that no one thinks he has any fresh or interesting ideas, or at least no political juice to turn them into policy. He droned on and on about "multilateralism," without offering any real specifics. I told a colleague later that Hart sounded like the kind of worthy who was born to run a chin-stroking, left-of-center think tank.
I could hardly believe my ears when he trashed Bush for trying to repeal the New Deal. That line was fresher back in 1984, when Hart and other Dems used it against Reagan. Is it just me, but when I think Gary Hart I think of Hill Street Blues, E.T., Flock of Seagulls, the L.A. Olympics, and other hallmarks of the early '80s? He has no clue how irrelevant he is. How sad and pathetic.
I started to remind Hart that a Democratic president declared famously that "the era of big government is over," but I decided it was a waste of breath. This guy's not going anywhere.And the same could be said of the noxious nine that are currently running.
#1
There are two things Colorado is famous for that I'm ashamed of: Alferd Packer and Gary Hart. (BTW, the spelling is correct - it's even like that on his tombstone.)
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/05/2003 15:16 Comments ||
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#2
One of the amusing things about Gary Hart is that not only did he oppose both the Gulf War and the liberation of Iraq, he also wanted the Navy to abandon big air craft carriers and use little ones (because little ones cost less - this was one of his great 'new ideas'). Had we followed his advice, Gulf War one probably would have been more costly and the Iraq liberation might have been three times as difficult.
#3
Regarding Packer: Packer was convicted of cannibalism--the only person ever to be convicted of that crime in the United States. The apocryphal story has it that during the proceedings, the judge is reported to have addressed Mr. Packer, saying "There were only seven Democrats in this county and you, you bastard, you ate five of them!" So, you see, Alferd had some redeeming qualities.
#7
Dave, did you have to remind me???
CC - Patsy Schroder isn't all bad - she QUIT, rather than being voted out of office like the other two. Unfortunately, Diane DeGette used Pat as a role model...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/05/2003 19:54 Comments ||
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The first naked flight has carried 87 passengers from Miami, Florida to Cancun in Mexico. The Castaways travel agency, which specialises in clothing-optional getaways, offered the trip to the El Dorado Resort & Spa for Nude Week for £310.
Cheap at half the price!
At cruising altitude, the passengers stripped off, but the captain and crew didn't.
"Is that a banana in your pocket, or are you glad to see me? Oh. You don't have a pocket. It's not a banana. You are glad to see me!"
Hot coffee, tea and sexual antics were all banned, but at least the plane's cabin had climate control, reports the Miami Herald.
"Mildred! You look so sexy wearing nothing but goose bumps!"
Castaways co-owner Donna Daniels said: "These are professionals who lead very stressful lives and are ready to let it all go. They are adventurers and risk takers. They don't even want clothes as a constraint. ''
"Lookitdat, Harvey! She opens her mouth and you can see light!"
Naked travel is the fastest-growing segment of the business, said Daniels. ''After 9/11, I didn't have any cancellations. Even after war broke out, we didn't have any cancellations on this trip. People feel safe on a flight like this."
I think it was Ken Layne who first suggested this as an appropriate security measure, about a week after 9-11...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/05/2003 02:38 pm ||
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"Lookitdat, Harvey! She opens her mouth and you can see light!" Humm, very tasteful. Still, as a security measure, it would be efficient. somehow, I can't picture Aziz-and-Mamoud-the-jihadi-hijackers willing to board this plane (especially if they can see the light).
EFL
Cinco de Mayo is a Mexican holiday, but it's increasingly a day for celebrations north of the border. In more ways than you thought.
Monday is the anniversary of the battle of Puebla, Mexico, on May 5, 1862, when outnumbered Mexican troops defeated French forces and stopped them from taking Mexico City. Mexico won that battle, but lost the war: The army of Napoleon III marched into Mexico City the next year and sent the elected Mexican president packing. Mexican Independence Day is actually in September and commemmorates Mexico's drive to break away from Spain in 1810. For Mexico, even though the victory was short-lived, the battle of Puebla was an important foundation for national pride. Native troops with outdated weaponry had been able to turn back a European army that had a decades-long undefeated streak and which was arguably the best trained and equipped in the world. Been going downhill ever since.
For the world, one could call May 5, 1862, the beginning of the end for Europe's ability to dominate the New World. France piled on the reinforcements and took Mexico City, but that was while the United States was distracted with its own Civil War. When the Civil War ended, the Union sent troops to the U.S.-Mexican border to intimidate France, which withdrew in 1867. European armies never invaded the Americas again. So, pop open a cold one and drink to the defeat of the French at the hands of our Mexican neighbors.
SURGEON GENERAL WARNING: Drinking to every French military defeat is hazardous to your health.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/05/2003 01:12 pm ||
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I live in Denver. The problem with Cinco de Mayo here is that this (very) minor Mexican commemoration has become a Mexican and Mexican-American pride day. That in and of itself is fine, but the way this is manifested is a three-day orgy of drinking and cruising (especially on a major Denver thoroughfare called Federal Boulevard)that has literally paralyzed that section of the city in years passed rendering it impassable for emergency vehicles. Also, fighting, drunkeness and gang shootings have been seen in the past. Thus, Cinco de Mayo has been hijacked as an excuse to get drunk and clog up the streets. It has become a pretext.
#2
A talk radio show in Houston had a discussion about Cinco de Mayo, and several callers insisted that the celebration was more of an advertising gimmick to sell beer in the USA than a holiday actually observed in Mexico.
#3
I've heard the same thing, Anon. Just like we've got so many stupid minor "holidays" now invented by the greeting card industry, Cinco de Mayo has been hijacked by the beer industry.
Posted by: Dar ||
05/05/2003 13:48 Comments ||
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#4
"Cinco de Mayo has been hijacked as an excuse to get drunk and clog up the streets..."
Gee, sounds just like St.Patrick's day ;-)
Posted by: Old Grouch ||
05/05/2003 14:11 Comments ||
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#5
We should celebrate because it marks another defeat of the French army. So have a ceverza and think how embarrassed the French felt when they were defeated at a no-name town in rural Mexico. Tacos for Everyone!
#6
Cinco de Mayo is actually celebrated in Colorado Springs by parades, picnics, and lots and lots of fun, especially for the kids. There's drinking, but not quite to the extent it is in Denver. Most people here celebrate because of pride in the Mexican part of their Mexican-American heritage. They also celebrate just as hard on Independence Day. I've been in towns where Cinco de Mayo wasn't celebrated at all, and in other places where it's a lot like Denver. Guess it depends on who's celebrating, and what they're celebrating.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/05/2003 14:34 Comments ||
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#7
Re: "...the best trained and equipped army in the world."
Let's see...May 1862...that would be the Army of the Potomac to fit the above bill...as for the best army in the world circa May 1862...check out the Army of Northern Virginia led by one Robert E. Lee.....
___________General Urko
#8
Borgboy is right. We shouldn't forget how the French tried to take advantage of the Civil War, invading Mexico when we were too distracted to do anything. Fortunately, they ...well...it was only the French.
Posted by: Tokyo Taro ||
05/05/2003 17:35 Comments ||
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#9
The French army was hardly the best in the world:they were crushed by the Prussians a few years late. The infamous general who commanded the conquest of Mexico surrendered the fort at Sedan in the Franco-Prussian war sealing their fate.
Cinco de Mayo was a small battle in a Civil War with Mexicans fighting on both sides.
At the end of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln sent 60,000 troops under the command of General Philip Sheridan to the Mexican border in Texas and forcing the French out of Mexico. They left poor Emperor Maximillian holding the bag and he was shot.
It is a reasonable assertion that America had the two best armies in the world in those years.
Posted by: George H. Beckwith ||
05/05/2003 23:04 Comments ||
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#10
We celebrate"Cinco de Mayo in Globe,Az,too.Mariachi's,Ethnic danceing,street entertainers,food and game stalls.It's a good place to take the family fo a little inexpensive fun.If you want to go to a coolethnic celebration check out one of the Native American Pow-Wows.Indian fry-bread dripping in Mesquite honey.
You can't make this stuff up, EFL:
OJ SIMPSON wants to return to the Los Angeles courtroom where he was tried for murdering his former wife. I'd sure like him back in court
He is offering television commentary on the approaching trial of another former actor, Robert Blake, who stands accused of a strikingly similar crime. Two dead wives, mountains of circumstatial evidence, etc, etc
Two American television networks are prepared to pay Simpson $US40,000 ($64,000) a day for his recollections and insights during proceedings against Blake, the star of the television detective series Baretta, who is alleged to have shot his wife outside a restaurant two years ago. Everyone will bitch about them hiring OJ, everyone will be glued to the TV watching the trial. Ratings are everything.
Simpson, 55, who spends his days playing golf and arguing with his family in Florida, said last week that he would like to talk to Blake before making any final decision on broadcasting. Uh, no.
Blake is being held in the same cell occupied by Simpson before his own televised trial in 1995. Ain't irony ironic?
"I do not know if Robert Blake is innocent or guilty â very few people can know that for sure â but I do know what it is like to be hounded and treated unfairly," said Simpson, whose pledges to find his former wife's "real" murderer have been mocked by critics. He tirelessly searched every golf course in America
"I want to remind people that a man is innocent until he is proven guilty, otherwise we are all in trouble. My first reaction was an immediate feeling of compassion because I knew what he was about to go through." "Been there, done that, oops, been acused of doing that."
Simpson advised Blake not to take a lie-detector test, watch television or blacken his wife's name in public: "It just makes you look bad." "Have your lawyers call the police racist, it worked for me"
Posted by: Steve ||
05/05/2003 12:42 pm ||
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"Been there, done that, oops, been acused of doing that."
He could shout his guilt on the street corners, and nobody could touch him, criminally at least. Civil suits, well, you can sue ANYONE for ANYTHING.
CRAWFORD, Tex., May 4 â Tacitly acknowledging that North Korea may not be deterred from producing plutonium for nuclear weapons, President Bush is now trying to marshal international support for preventing the country from exporting nuclear material, American and foreign officials say.
Mr. Bush discussed the new approach on Saturday morning with Australia's prime minister, John Howard, after the two men were given a lengthy briefing at Mr. Bush's ranch by the chief American negotiator with North Korea, James A. Kelly, officials said.
For a decade, the United States' declared policy has been that North Korea would be prevented, by any means necessary, from producing plutonium or highly enriched uranium. President Bill Clinton ordered the Pentagon to draw up plans for a military strike when the North threatened to begin production in 1994, but a nuclear freeze agreement was reached later that year.
Mr. Bush's new focus on blocking the sale of nuclear material to countries or terrorist groups reflects intelligence officials' conclusion that they cannot ascertain whether North Korea was bluffing when it claimed last month that it had already reprocessed enough spent nuclear fuel to make many weapons.
"The president said that the central worry is not what they've got, but where it goes," said an official familiar with the talks between Mr. Bush and Mr. Howard. "He's very pragmatic about it, and the reality is that we probably won't know the extent of what they are producing. So the whole focus is to keep the plutonium from going further."
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, in an appearance on the NBC News program "Meet the Press," insisted today that the administration's long-term goal was to force North Korea to dismantle all of its nuclear weapons programs. He vowed that it would get no international aid unless its government changed course.
"Everybody has now made it clear to North Korea that they will not find any assistance coming to them from the region in terms of economic development," he said, "unless they abandon their nuclear weapons programs."
But in recent interviews, several American officials have said that it was becoming clear that the policy that Mr. Clinton described in 1994 â when he warned that producing plutonium could result in an American attack to destroy the nuclear facilities at Yongbyon â was probably not sustainable anymore.
South Korea's new president, Roh Moo Hyun, who will visit Washington for the first time next week, "has made it clear he won't consider military action of any kind," said one senior administration official. "It's a different atmosphere than in 1994."
Another official who has discussed the issue with Mr. Bush said his thinking was that the North Koreans "are looking to get us excited, to make us issue declarations."
"And his answer to them is," the official added, `You're hungry, and you can't eat plutonium.' "
Still, Mr. Bush's approach is a major gamble â one that depends on superb intelligence about North Korea's efforts to sell its weapons. So far, though, the nuclear program has been what one American intelligence official calls "the black hole of Asia."
Hopes for a rapid solution to the escalating crisis in Zim-Bob-We were fading after a state-owned newspaper denounced the delegation of three African presidents who arrived in Harare yesterday as British "agents". Well, so much for "Plan A".
President Robert Mugabe also indicated he would spurn talks with Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change, amid a new diplomatic initiative designed to haul the former British colony out of its worst political and economic crisis since independence in 1980. The Sunday Mail questioned whether the three presidents were going to be in Zimbabwe as "African brothers; to help or act as agents in efforts by Britain, the former colonial ruler, and the United States to force Mugabe to step down". In an astonishing gaffe, it declared the three presidents, including Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria — the two most powerful figures in Africa — were not to be trusted as they could be "British agents" coming to "play British games". It's not a gaffe, it's a deliberate slap in the face
Mr Mbeki, Mr Obasanjo and President Bakili Muluzi of Malawi were expected to meet Mr Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai last night in an attempt to persuade them to negotiate a path away from Zimbabwe's impending economic and political catastrophe. While he ruled out "regime change", Mr Mbeki said last week that the key issue was to bring Mr Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai to the negotiating table. Diplomats say there is a growing consensus between African and Western countries that the key issue is to find some way for Mr Mugabe, 79, who is in his 24th year of power, to step down and make way for free and fair presidential and parliamentary elections held under international supervision. Regional analysts say the talks hold the same significance as the intervention by neighbouring black states in 1979, which forced Mr Mugabe to go to Lancaster House in London for negotiations with white-ruled Rhodesia that led to elections and independence in 1980. But Mr Mugabe's refusal to participate in an African-sponsored settlement could finally turn Mr Mbeki and Mr Obasanjo, who have hitherto bent over backwards to support the former Zimbabwean liberation leader, against him. For the past three years, Mr Mugabe has portrayed the mounting economic crisis in Zimbabwe as the result of a British "war" against the Government. Last week the Sunday Mail dismissed reports that he might step down before his term of office expired in 2008 as "wishful thinking". Yup
Mr Tsvangirai said last week that "the only way" to resolve the crisis was through "serious and sincere dialogue between the MDC and (the ruling) Zanu(-PF)". Oh, I think Rantburg readers can come up with a more practical method of solving the crisis. Try lead poisoning, for example.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/05/2003 12:27 pm ||
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Lead poisoning would do well. Though I think I'd kind of like to see his people hang him from a lamppost.
Posted by: Kathy K ||
05/05/2003 19:09 Comments ||
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#2
In honor of Cinco De Mayo - may I propose Bob and Grace as the official Piñatas
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/05/2003 20:20 Comments ||
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#3
I wonder if the $15b in AIDS is a done deal in Congress. Why else would there be pressure to "do something?"
The U.S.-led hunt for al-Qaida terrorists seeking haven in and around the Horn of Africa has quietly paid off with the recent capture of midlevel operatives, the Marine general overseeing the mission says. Lt. Gen. Michael DeLong said in an Associated Press interview Friday that U.S. forces working with friendly governments in the region captured an unspecified number of al-Qaida members. It was the first public disclosure of the successes, although DeLong offered few specifics. He did not, for example, say which of the countries in the region â including Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti and Yemen â had yielded the terrorists or whether they were captured on land or at sea. DeLong, the deputy commander of Central Command, said the people captured in recent months were not among the terror network's most senior. There's not a lot of those left, anyway.
"We have picked up al-Qaida members in those countries," DeLong said in the telephone interview from his office at Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Fla. He said the successes had been kept "low key" at the request of the local governments. "Sssh, be wery, wery quiet, we're hunting jihadi's!"
"Not the very highest rank," was his description of the members of the organization led by Osama bin Laden. He said military operations over the past six months had captured "medium-level al-Qaida in three or four or five of the countries there." I figured we were picking up more bad guys than had been announced. There hasn't been a major attack in a while.
A main military focus of the global war on terrorism has been Afghanistan, particularly in recent months along the porous border with Pakistan. But since the fall of the Taliban rule in Afghanistan, the U.S. military has given more attention to finding remnants of al-Qaida in the Horn of Africa region. A two-star Marine Corps general, John Sattler, is running the operation, formally called Task Force Horn of Africa, from the USS Mount Whitney in the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Djibouti. There are about 400 people aboard the ship, including liaison officers from countries in the region. About 900 U.S. troops, including special operations forces, are based ashore at Camp Lemonier in Djibouti. DeLong said governments in the region had been extremely helpful. He said he could not predict how long the operation would continue but that Central Command intends to move the task force's headquarters ashore in Djibouti in the next month or so. The three-star general said even if no al-Qaida were being captured in the Horn of Africa, the mere presence of American forces there for a sustained period provides a "comfort factor" for governments in the region. Yup
"Knowing we're helping them look for al-Qaida members has paid huge dividends," he said. Senior government officials have been very forthcoming with U.S. officials in the search for terrorists. Seeing what happens when you harbor al-Qaida members helps.
DeLong and his staff in Tampa have focused largely on the Horn of Africa and Afghanistan while Gen. Tommy Franks has been running the Iraq war. The 9,000 American troops in Afghanistan may be there for another year or two, DeLong said, and now that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has declared major combat operations over, more countries are expressing interest in joining in reconstruction projects with local Afghan communities. The keys to rebuilding Afghanistan and preventing its return to a terrorist haven include civil affairs teams that are moving across the country to help restore basic services, reopen schools, train teachers and instill a sense of confidence about the future. The first of what the Pentagon calls Provincial Reconstruction Teams has been functioning in Gardez since February. The key to its success, DeLong said, has been the inclusion of Afghan soldiers who are part of an emerging national army trained by U.S. and French troops. French?????
"The people of Gardez had never seen a national Afghan force before.... They related with them," he said. "They became sort of the center of gravity because they were comfortable to have, quote, their own soldiers, around." The sooner we get this Afghan army stood up, the better
Posted by: Steve ||
05/05/2003 12:01 pm ||
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Which is why I told my anti-war friends that Eritrea and Djibouti were worthy countries to have on our side in the war. No, the war and WOT go together.
Posted by: Michael ||
05/05/2003 12:52 Comments ||
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I read another article that said the Afghans want to be soldiers. For one, steady pay.
A court has sentenced an aide to West Bank Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, himself on trial in another court on terrorism charges, to life in prison, sources said on Monday . Nasser Awis - accused of being a commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, an armed Fatah offshoot - was handed down 14 life sentences, plus an additional 50 years for having planned, bankrolled and commanded attacks which killed 14 Israelis and wounded dozens.
Nasser Awis is apparently a different fellow from Nasser Awais, an al-Aqsa commander who departed this vale of tears April a year ago when his boom belt went off prematurely. Either that, or Nasser's a really resilient fellow...
Barghouti, 43, a member of the Palestinian parliament and chief of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah in the West Bank, was also facing the last day on Monday of witness hearings in another court in Tel Aviv. Once tipped as a potential successor to Arafat, he was arrested during an Israeli invasion of Ramallah in April 2002 and charged with heading the Al-Aqsa faction, a charge he denied. He has refused to ackowledge the court's jurisdiction to try him.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/05/2003 11:56 am ||
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That shows you how the supplies of boomers have been depleted when a year ago they had commanders doing the job - this year they have wanna-be British ISM tools
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/05/2003 15:12 Comments ||
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#2
I think he must be resilient. Cats only get nine lives, apparently Nasser has at least 14.
North Korea threatened Monday, May 5, to scuttle all nuclear talks unless the United States responds positively to Pyongyang's offer to dismantle its nuclear program in exchange for economic and diplomatic payoffs. North Korea also accused Washington of making efforts to resolve the nuclear crisis "more complicated" by again including the Stalinist state on a list of countries suspected of sponsoring terrorism. "If the U.S. does not positively respond to the DPRK's (North Korea's) bold proposal, it will be held accountable for scuttling all efforts for dialogue and seriously straining the situation," the ruling Workers Party newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, said. It denounced Washington for ignoring the North's proposal, presented at talks in Beijing last month meant to defuse the six-month-old nuclear crisis.
Truculence is diplomacy by other means, I guess...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/05/2003 11:30 am ||
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EFL Colin Powell, the U.S. Secretary of State, said yesterday he had delivered a final warning to Syria to stop aiding terrorist groups. He said Damascus would have a price to pay if it failed to meet Washington's demands to close the offices of Islamic terrorist organizations in its country. "There are consequences lurking in the background," Mr. Powell said on U.S. television. And a armored division or two lurking over the border
He did not specifically threaten military action in his meeting with Bashar Assad, the Syrian President, on Saturday — but he did say George W. Bush, the U.S. President, would "have all his options on the table" should Syria ignore the U.S. edict to change its ways following the destruction of Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq. "There are many ways to confront a nation," he said, adding that diplomatic and economic sanctions and military force are all possible. Final warning, price to pay, consequences, Colin has been hanging out with Rummy.
Mr. Powell and other U.S. officials said yesterday that Damascus had already taken action to shut down terrorist offices, but Syrian officials declined to comment on those claims. "You have to ask him what he meant," said Bouthaina Shaaban, a spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry. "I'm really not entitled to answer. We are more interested in what he said about a comprehensive peace rather than what he said about offices," she said. They're not listening
Officials with the groups identified for closure by Mr. Powell were more blunt: "I haven't been informed of any such thing," said Osama Hamdan, a Hamas official in Lebanon. "The Americans know well that our presence is part of the Palestinian presence in Syria and Lebanon and that it's not voluntary. It is forced, because of the occupation of our land and the expulsion of Palestinians [at the creation of Israel]," he said. "It's the Jews fault!"
Visitors to the group's Damascus headquarters, as well as those of Islamic Jihad — another terrorist faction Mr. Powell demanded Syria shut — were told senior officials were travelling. Running? On vacation? I heard Paris is nice in the spring.
Officials from Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslim group backed by Syria and Iran, were similarly defiant. "I doubt anyone would answer [the U.S.] call, for as long as there is [Israeli] occupation, no one can even propose disarming the resistance," said Sheik Hassan Izzedine, a senior official of Hezbollah. "We are not worried a bit about the future and we consider ourselves people with a just cause and we reject any threat."
"Ain't nobody tellin' us what to do!"
Mr. Powell said the Bush administration will closely follow developments in the region, and warned that Syrian promises of action would not suffice. "There are no illusions in [Mr. Assad's] mind as to what we are looking for from Syria," he said. "There was, as we put it in diplomatic terms, a candid exchange of views, but it is not promises that we are interested in — or assurances — but it is action. We will see what happens in the days, weeks, months ahead." "Every breath you take, every move you make, I'll be watching you."
Mr. Powell said since Damascus has a new neighbour with a changed power structure in Iraq, the United States "would be watching, and we would measure performance over time to see whether Syria is prepared now to move in a new direction in light of these changed circumstances." Heh, heh, heh
Posted by: Steve ||
05/05/2003 10:16 am ||
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As grampaw usta say when whacking a bull between the ears with a 2-by-4 - "First you have to get it's attention."
#2
'Course, they probably counted the number of "last warnings" Sammy got...
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2003 11:57 Comments ||
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#3
Syria had better remember that it is the US and not the UN that is laying down the warnings. We are talking about low single digits here.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/05/2003 12:35 Comments ||
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#4
When they quit being a football for other groups' religious terror campaigns and greater nationalistic aspirations, -700,000 displaced paleos have a legitimate problem to be addressed.
Hopefully, when the jihadis are squelched and Syria is reorganized, reasonable people will take an unbiased look.
Posted by: Scott ||
05/05/2003 15:32 Comments ||
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#5
It was 700,000 in 1948. The total is now around 4 million, what with the kiddies and all. And THAT'S why Israel won't give in on the Paleo demand for a "Right of Return", they'd be swamped and ousted inside of 50 years.
#6
Your figures may very well be right, mojo. Where do these people go? Who speaks for them? Arafat? I don't think so. At least not anymore. Does Israel even have a conscience towards those displaced? (and are continuing to) Do we? Or do we write them all off as terrorists?
When the bombing stops, will the bulldozers?
Posted by: Scott ||
05/05/2003 17:40 Comments ||
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#7
Syria still a member of the current UN Security Council? Just goes to show how irrelevant that outfit has become.
Posted by: john ||
05/05/2003 20:06 Comments ||
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#8
The majority of those that left in '48 left willingly, by that I mean of their own accord. They felt sure that the Arabs would win the war and they would then be allowed to return to claim the spoils. They made a mistake, and thus, should be forced to live with their actions....the ones that remained became Israeli citizens and enjoy rights other Arabs could only imagine in their own countries....
#9
A lot of the so-called Palestinians are migrants from other Arab countries. If I recall correctly, Arafat was originally Eqyptian. Let's face it - the whole Palestinian scheme is an Arab project to annihilate Israel.
#10
Now lemme see if I got this straight: 700k left because they wanted to go to filthy refugee camps to stand aside and watch their arab brothers wipe out the Jewish people occupying their homeland and it was so much fun that other arabs decided to join them.
Oh yeah, and no take backs. Except for the ones that stayed. They're enjoying themselves. Unless one of their country cousins blows himself up at the bus station, in which case they join the party of the first part, being members of the vast (which wing is it?) conspiracy that wants to annihilate Israel. Did I miss anything?
Posted by: Scott ||
05/05/2003 23:46 Comments ||
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EFL - any surprise here? Arafat's a survivor - unfortunately for the Paleos and the Israelis
Five different Palestinian Authority security organizations, including Force 17 and the General Intelligence, remain under the direct command of Chairman Yasser Arafat - and this can be seen as the first substantial breach of one of the important security clauses of the U.S. road map for a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A complaint along these lines has been relayed to the Americans and the matter is now a central talking point between Israeli officials and U.S. representatives. The road map explicitly stipulates that Palestinian security organizations will be combined into three services that report to the PA interior minister. The reorganization following the appointment of Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) as PA prime minister have produced a very different arrangement. The PA security organization's seven separate mechanisms have not been reduced to three. The Interior Ministry where Mohammed Dahlan is minister for state affairs has authority over just two security organizations - the counter-intelligence apparatus and the uniformed police. Arafat remains in charge of five different security organizations - General Intelligence, the National Security Forces, Force 17, Military Intelligence and the naval forces. What do the naval forces do? Oh yeah, I remember, the Karine A
To place his five organizations under something of a new and separate command, Arafat has set up a new body, the National Security Council, in which the PA chairman's close associate and former PA interior minister Hani al-Hassan has a central role. Clearly this is a false reorganization that is designed to leave things as they were and allow Arafat to retain separate and independent military powers, far from the watchful eye of Abu Mazen. A number of the organizations under Arafat - Force 17, for example - have been directly involved in acts of terrorism. As far as Israel is concerned, these organizations have been terror groups for all intents and purposes, and many of Israel's reprisals have been directed against them. The redistribution will weigh heavy on Israel's security cooperation with Abu Mazen's government.
It will also, the Roadmap notwithstanding, give Abbas an opportunity to get a part of the Paleo security organizations clean, while the IDF goes on thumping the Yasserite part...
It's clear that if this reorganization received the Palestinian Legislative Council's stamp of approval, Arafat will get a special budget to maintain his security organizations, just as the organizations under Abu Mazen and Dahlan will receive budgets. Agreements with the counter-intelligence organization will be put into question because alongside it there are Palestinian security organizations over which the PA Interior Ministry and Mohammed Dahlan will have no say, further compounding the problem when it comes to facing off against Hamas, Islamic Jihad or the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which are armed with illegal weapons. Abu Mazen and Dahlan will also face a tough problem in that the PA will play host to another five armies over which they have no power. Under such circumstances, Abu Mazen's chances of eradicating terror are very slim. Yasser's just shuffling the deck chairs on the Lusitania
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/05/2003 09:44 am ||
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EFL - More details on the bomber's trail:
The two British bombers involved in the bombing of Mike's Bar in Tel Aviv early Wednesday arrived in the territories via the Allenby Bridge, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told the weekly cabinet meeting yesterday. Assif Mohammed Hanif blew himself up in the attack, killing three people, but Omar Khan Sharif, who fled when his explosive belt malfunctioned, remains at large. Police yesterday scaled back the extensive search of the south Tel Aviv area for Sharif on the assumption that he has now made his way back to the territories. Omar Sharif? Isn't he a little old to be doing this crap?
In recent months, the two were students in Damascus, where it appears they were recruited by one of the terror groups in the Syrian capital. A few weeks before the bombing, they crossed from Jordan via the Allenby Bridge border crossing. As far as is known, they were not detained or questioned. Among their possessions were explosives which, according to Mofaz, were concealed in a copy of the Koran. Nice touch, that
On arriving in Gaza, they made contact with local terror cells, and felt safe enough to cross back into Israel at least one more time. On crossing the Erez checkpoint, they did not raise any suspicions of security personnel. Explosives experts say it is possible to make explosives that can be condensed into a very small space to evade detection at a border crossing. They say it was unlikely detonators were smuggled into Israel from overseas. Homemade, that's why they had a 50% failure rate
I heard Omar's belt didn't fail, Omar did...
Mofaz said that the bombing left Israel with no option but to increase its supervision of foreign citizens entering the territories. Security officials have long complained that peace activists have been inciting against soldiers in the territories. ISM activists appear to be catching lead a lot lately.... sympathy meter... tap tap... nope
Mofaz said that last week's attack, which came just hours after the swearing in of Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), was aimed at harming the Palestinian prime minister as much as it was aimed against Israel. British intelligence officials fear the Tel Aviv suicide bombing could inspire young Moslems to carry out similar attacks against targets in the UK or abroad. A report in the Sunday Telegraph said MI5 knew the two Britons had links to Islamic extremists but had decided they were not potential terrorists. The Telegraph also said the two may have been trained by Al-Qaida or Hezbollah. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said there were "serious leads" suggesting that Hanif and Sharif had been trained in camps in Syria by supporters of either Al-Qaida or Hezbollah, the paper said, adding that Israel and MI5, Britain's internal security service, are cooperating on the case.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/05/2003 09:21 am ||
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Talks are under way to secure the freedom of 31 European tourists who are being held in the Sahara desert, the Algerian Government has said. "Contacts are taking place at the moment on the liberation of the tourists," Tourism Minister Lakhdar Dorbani told the national parliament's tourism commission, Algerian state radio reports.
Boy, that's a thankless job: Algeria's tourism minister...
His statement was the first confirmation by an Algerian official that talks to secure the release of the hostages were being held. The minister declined to specify with whom the talks were being held. Some of the 31 tourists - 15 Germans, 10 Austrians, four Swiss nationals, a Dutchman and a Swede - have been missing since February. El Watan newspaper quotes Algerian security officials as saying that a gang of bandits had kidnapped the tourists in return for a ransom, and that talks on securing their release had been under way for three weeks. The paper said the tourists had been located in the Tamelrik mountain range, about 1,500 kilometres (900 miles) south-east of Algiers. Earlier reports speculated that the tourists had been kidnapped by the militant Islamic Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), linked to Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network. That's my guess.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/05/2003 08:06 am ||
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#1
I wonder how many of them remain alive. I'm praying for their release.
Check out site anp.org (don't know if link is there) for another point of view of the kidnappings. The site is fascinating as the Free Officers Movement of Algeria had not posted any communiques since November, and I thought they had been penetrated. Again, a totally different perspective on the troubles in Algeria.
Posted by: Michael ||
05/05/2003 9:50 Comments ||
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#3
Kidnapped by nomad smugglers, organized crime or islamo-nuts (or all of the above): either way they're not in an enviable position, to say the least. As the FOMA, I don't know; somehow, its main theme has more or less been "the gvt did all of the atrocities" and the dirty war fought by the algerian shock troops. While the bloodletting certainly was and is instrumentalized by the generals, no doubts about it, this one-sidedness makes me uneasy.
The 70 Chinese submariners killed in a recent accident appear to have died of suffocation, according to a Hong Kong newspaper with close ties to Beijing. An article in Wen Wei Po quoted investigators as saying there were no traces of an explosion on board the submarine, or signs of flooding. The newspaper report said rescuers found all crew members still at their posts, suggesting there had been no warning of the "mechanical difficulties" which the official Chinese media said caused the accident. China has released few details about the accident, prompting speculation that it may have been caused by a malfunctioning of the vessel's diesel engines, which sucked oxygen from the interior during descent. Snorkle malfunction, engine was using air from inside the boat instead of from the snorkle.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/05/2003 08:00 am ||
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#1
Sounds like it might have been CO poisoning, since they were still at their posts...
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2003 8:10 Comments ||
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#2
Anyone else surprised we are even reading about this?
Posted by: Jon ||
05/05/2003 14:56 Comments ||
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#3
Yes, it is surprising, for China. But these are unusual times. My question is, "could SARS bring down a government?" Beijing is locked down and that whole country has gotta be scared (the ones that know). I sure hope our CIA has a better handle here than it had in E.Europe.
#4
I wonder how much SARS deaths and infections are underreported by the ChiComs? 4:1, 10:1? I wonder if this is a viral equivalent to Chernobyl.... Not getting a handle on the epidemic in the beginning and lying to their people and the world hits home when one's friends and relatives are sick and dying.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/05/2003 15:54 Comments ||
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#5
Strategypage.com has a good overview of what could go wrong on a Ming class boat. They think that the crew may have left the diesels running when after diving and used up all of the oxygen.
#6
AP, I think that even China could not come up with accurate numbers if it spreads to the countryside.
Posted by: Jon ||
05/05/2003 17:20 Comments ||
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#7
Sorry AP, that was me with the 1st SARS post (I spaced off the moniker - I'm sure you're thrilled. Also had to go to work. I wish the real world would just stop bothering me!)
You're absolutely right. It's got to be WAAAY underreported. That's probably why they showed a little leg with the sub mess. ("See, we're an open society.") This is much bigger than Chernobyl, and Chernobyl did not shut down Moscow.
But it's a great analogy. And I've wondered how much screwups like Chernobyl hastened the demise of the USSR.
Posted by: Scott ||
05/05/2003 17:44 Comments ||
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Blogger Marmot's Hole, discusses the anti-Americanism being tought in South Korean Schools.
But just to be fair, I took the time to download some of their anti-war teaching materials from the KTU homepage. What I saw shocked me; it took me a full half an hour just to calm down. In a booklet intended for middle school students in Kyonggi Province, readers are treated to graphic displays of dead and injured Iraqi civilians (particularly children), accompanied by extremely anti-American text. Objectivity was completely dispensed with; who needs balance in a brainwashing. In one quiz, found in the Kyonggi Province middle school materials booklet mentioned above, the students are treated to the following three questions:
1) What are the official justifications given by the Bush Administration for their invasion of Iraq? (5 choices)
2) Which of the following does NOT refute the justifications given in question one? (5 choices)
3) Anyone who believes the Bush Administration is stupid. Which of the following are the real reasons for Bush's invasion of Iraq? (5 choices).
Nice, eh? In another section, students are shown a list of American interventions abroad since 1801. There are no explanations or histories accompanying each entry, and many of the examples given are either wrongly attributed (the US is given credit for the British interventions in 19th century Argentina), highly controversial (the fall of the Whitlam government in Australia is attributed to the CIA), rather bizarre ("interventions in the internal affairs of Poland, 1980-1983"), or just plain lies (an assasination attempt on Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda in 1980?). Strangely missing was WW II (one of the byproducts of which was the liberation of Korea from Japanese colonial rule), although the 1941 "occupations" of Greenland and Iceland are included. Anyway, at the bottom of the list is sarcastically written. "America is a great country, isn't it?"
(see link for full story)
Posted by: Anonymous ||
05/05/2003 07:48 am ||
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#4
Here's how we deal with the whole Korea problem; in exchange for their immediate dismantling of their nuclear program, we let North Korea have South Korea, thus making official a de facto relationship. Fact is, I'm having a hard time not thinking about SK the same way I think about France.
#5
I spent a great deal of time in South Korea last summer and for the most part enjoyed myself, but I did feel a bit uneasy due to some of the prejudices of the younger generation. No problems with those 30+. Also, I wouldn't say that this sentiment is anti-American, but more anti-foreign. I tried passing as an American, a Canadian and a European and got the exact same reaction from the people there. Koreans are known throughout Asia as being xenophobic towards others, including the Chinese and especially the Japanese, which is somewhat understandable given their history with them.
Nonetheless, South Korea is a phenomenal country with great culture and food. Itâs sort of a mix of Chinaâs history and Japanâs technology. It has enormous potential, but it will go unused if they continue with their racial superiority complex.
#6
I'm having a hard time not thinking about SK the same way I think about France
Former Liberal,
I agree. I've felt that way for a few months now. If it were up to me we'd have removed our troops from SK all together and let the "wealthy, thankless teenagers of South Korea take their rightful place on the front line" as VDH says.
I also read an editorial in the Korean Herald this weekend about anti-Americanism in Korea. The moral of the editorial was not to be strictly anti-American because not everyone in America agrees with Bush. I guess that's somewhat helpful. lol.
Posted by: g wiz ||
05/05/2003 13:06 Comments ||
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#7
Just like the U.S. SK has liberals and conservatives. The liberals run the show right now but I suspect they will go down in flames the next election. They signed off on this nuclear free Korea (worthless) treaty. If they lied about the nuclear program, what else are they they hiding?
#8
Sarge: The liberals have been running that country for the last six years. This new guy is Kim Dae-jung on steroids. It doesn't bode well when the younger and largely uninformed younger crowd keeps voting these people in over and over again.
It's funny, when DJ came into power, he wouldnât tolerate any criticism of his northern neighbor, but went full force when chiding the US. This guy Roh is much, much worse. He even instructs his UN envoys to block any attempt at rebuke to âDear Leaderâ and his cronies.
#9
I don't know why anyone's upset about this. Much of the same is taught in the Middle East, not only about Israel but about the United States as well. A lot of people hate us because they were TAUGHT to hate us. There are many, many places in the United States where our history is equally as distorted. I've read some of my daughter's high school textbooks, and they're appalling. What is it Lenin said? "Give me a child for ten years, and I'll have him for life." In the meantime, fewer and fewer children around the entire world are learning the truth.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/05/2003 14:55 Comments ||
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#10
SL I really appreciate it when we get info from people on the ground (or at least have been) Personal info may be narrow, but it's got to be AT LEAST as valid as info filtered thru some left winger's kidneys. Even with Bush in office, just how much can we trust State Dept. info? Or even DD? Everybody seems to have a different game running. Blogs like these might be the only unadulterated sources around.
Posted by: Scott ||
05/05/2003 17:25 Comments ||
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Donald Sensing over at One Hand Clapping has some accounts of goings-on in North Korea, along with a few photos. Nothing revelatory here, but interesting to put beside the latest rantings.
North Korea has at least 100 nuclear missiles aimed at the United States and will use them if new economic sanctions are imposed against it, a propagandist for the Stalinist state claimed.
Posted by: Bent Pyramid ||
05/05/2003 05:03 am ||
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#1
It's becoming increasingly obvious that these guys are going to have to be euthanized. I wonder if we'll have to wait until after the election?
Posted by: Bent Pyramid ||
05/05/2003 6:06 Comments ||
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#2
I've previously posted on this site that some of the ignorant and naive opinions expressed were frightening. Now, however, having read this site for a little longer it is rather apparent that the collective IQ of the majority of the contributors is sadly lacking and the only danger this site poses it that of splitting the laughing sides of people from all over the world who can check out how, frankly, ridiculous some Americans' opinions evidently are - no insult intended to you folks personally, after all it's not your fault that your country's underfunded education system has, quite evidently, failed you (you have a lower level of literacy in the U.S. than they have in Cuba) and left you without the necessary skills to analyse, with any real degree of rigour, the information presented to you, resulting in the vicious, vitriolic, intolerant, self serving, inward looking, and really rather pathetic and meaningless views which you present.
#4
You know what sunnie? Who cares! I'm a post-grad does that count for anything; from a foreign university (French no-less). Basically anyone who doesn't agree with your leftist (BS) position is ignorant. Well, you know what? I think your ignorant and stupid. I can tell you one thing Sunnie I've been around the world and I hate to tell you but Americans are some of the best educated. I know you hate to hear things like that, but it is very true. That is why they kick-ass in everything from business to technology.
Posted by: George ||
05/05/2003 8:13 Comments ||
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#5
Those who canât compose rational arguments typically try to insult their opponent.
So⦠Sunnie⦠in your âenlightenedâ opinion, dealing with the murderous regime in North Korea is âridiculous?â I think we all know history will prove otherwise.
Which weak and irrelevant country do you come from? Does your country lead the world in medicine? technology? economy? philanthropy? entertainment? military power?
I didn't think so.
Perhaps you could tell us a little more about the "great" country you come from. You can be our humorist for the day.
#8
OK Sonny, I'll bite. How would YOU deal with Nkor? More money? Do you remember what happened the last time the U.S. made a deal with them? What's that saying about doing the same thing, and expecting diffenerent results?
Methinks Sonnys' a Troll, and will not be back to defend it's position.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
05/05/2003 9:05 Comments ||
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#9
Murat in disguise?
Posted by: Tom ||
05/05/2003 9:13 Comments ||
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#10
So where do they suddenly have this capability to strike American cities from? Weren't they just recently testing a missile that could reach Japan? Is this article authored by Chicken Little?
Sunnie--Won't you enlighten us with your amazing insight and suggest what should be done here, rather than spewing vitriol?
Posted by: Dar ||
05/05/2003 9:15 Comments ||
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#11
Wow, this is the first time I've ever attracted a troll. Do I get anything special, like a cigar?
Posted by: Bent Pyramid ||
05/05/2003 9:48 Comments ||
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#12
"- no insult intended to you folks personally, after all it's not your fault that your country's underfunded education system has, quite evidently, failed you "
#13
Sunnie, for having such a bad education system the us still dominates all aspects. Trade (especially the future of information techs), Technology ..Patents, Military, Socially (every one who knows wants to come to america),Freedoms, Goverment (yea sometimes it seems like a joke - but man it works). Where are you from Sunnie, are your embassies inuadated with requests to come to your country? I think your a just a little ignorant yourself with such condenscending talk. Like I said, where are you from? I see other posts asking the same question, are you embarrassed?
Posted by: Dan ||
05/05/2003 10:45 Comments ||
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#14
...as far as the article goes, this is just more ridiculous saber rattling by the Nkors. They don't have 100 bombs. Even if they did, are they willing to trade their existence for, say, San Francisco or Seattle? They launch one nuke in our direction and North Korea ceases to exist in about ten minutes. We are rotating nuke boats within quick striking distance of Pyonyang as we speak.
They need to be careful about their provocations. At some point their threats could become grounds for doing more than sanctions.
#16
Aside from the troll baiting, anyone have a problem with this besides Jonesy and me? Seems like estimates a few weeks ago were that NKor had maybe two nukes and were maybe capable of putting one into Japan.
Posted by: Dar ||
05/05/2003 11:28 Comments ||
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#17
Sunnie's blowing smoke, guys: He/she/it hasn't been around long enough to know that we post insane sounding, stupid stuff from KNCA to highlight NKor stupidity. Sunni's too stupid to realize that pointing out stupidity and deceptiveness isn't a demonstration of stupidity.
#19
Bent Pyramid and tu3031 - thank you for providing illustrations to my point.
George - A couple of points: 1) It's certainly clear that many people care, about what is where there are differences. The contributors to this site seem, in the main, to care about the U.S. alone and care about other peoples almost as little as they appear to know about them. 2)Someone who reports having undergone a post-grad' education really should know that the abreviation of "you are" is spelled "you're", not "your". 3) The well educated americans who you've met on your travels are likely to be from the more wealthy end of U.S. society. The fact that 21 - 24% of americans fell into the lowest literacy catagory of the most recent International Adult Literacy Survey just seems to me far to high for the richest country in the world. And, on that note, why is it that you also have nearly 12% of your population living in poverty and why is that figure rising?
----------<<<<- - I don't recall describing my opinion as 'enlightended', or that "dealing with the murderous regime in North Korea is âridiculous?â so please don't make up quotes. I am intrigued by the apparent hypocricy you display in describing the N. Korean regime as a murderous one (which it may well be) - what about your own regime in the states, don't some states still sanction execution for example? As for "think we all know history will prove otherwise" do actually have a functioning crystal ball, or is that an illustration of mindless supposition?
Jonesy - Does it matter what country I'm from? Does it make my opinion any less valid if I'm not from the most militarily powerful country in the world? If so then maybe you should involve yourself in thuggery rather than debate.
Shipman - see my reply to bent pyramid and tu3031.
Mike N - Thank you for Why is it necessary to 'deal' with North Korea any more than it is necessary to 'deal' with France, U.K., Russia, the U.S., China, Pakistan, Israel or, indeed, any other country with nuclear weopens and questionable Human Rights records? It seems to me that N. Korea reactivated it's nuclear weopens programme in response to the threat it percieved from being included in Bush II's 'axis of evil' rant.
Tom - sorry, i don't understand - murat?
Dar - Sorry I don't understand the first secton of your post. As for the second - I would suggest that the U.S. should stop, metaphorically, throwing it's weight around. It destabilises the world, creates fear and makes all of us less secure.
Pink and Fluffy - Good point, however I was thinking, not to the total spend on educatiom, but more to the inequalities within the education system which result in some very very good education for, generally, the more wealthy, and, conversly poorer education for the less powerful.
Dan - I'm from the U.K.. That said, please also read my reply, earlier in this post, to Jonesy.
Jonesy - Your second post seems to try and look beyong the face value of the information presented in the article - nice try 4/10. However you soon decend into bully-boy boasts of military supremacy - it seems unfortunately, that you're already a thug and won't heed my earlier advice to you.
#23
Ptah--thanks for making that point. Do I believe that NK has 100-300 nukes? No. Do I believe that they have two or three? More than likely. Do I believe that the fact that they CLAIM to have 100-300 nukes AND are threatening to use them on the USA indicates that there is a dangerous pathology in the NK leadership, mandating their removal for the good of the planet? You betcha.
Posted by: Bent Pyramid ||
05/05/2003 12:46 Comments ||
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#24
I'm beginning to believe that the entire nuclear threat by North Korea is a bluff to get the US to feed Kim's starving people. You can't have slaves if they all starve to death.
As for Sunnie, your mother is calling you...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/05/2003 12:53 Comments ||
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#25
Dishman - your point being?
Bent Pyramid - Are you advocating that the N.Korean leadership should be assassinated?
#28
Sunnie, you declare "Does it matter what country I'm from? Does it make my opinion any less valid".
Yet earlier, you stated "how, frankly, ridiculous some Americans' opinions evidently are - no insult intended to you folks personally, after all it's not your fault that your country's underfunded education system has, quite evidently, failed you...and left you without the necessary skills to analyse, with any real degree of rigour, the information presented to you, resulting in the vicious, vitriolic, intolerant, self serving, inward looking, and really rather pathetic and meaningless views which you present."
So you can maintain a prejudice of Americans but it's irrelevant for the board to know your country of origin. Your hypocrisy reeks of stench.
#29
Sunshine. You've failed to answer my question to any degree. I absolutely refuse to beleive that you feel we shouldn't deal with them at all. That would be "hostility" toward the NOK's. They've defined it as that, not us. If not dealing with them is an act of hostility towards them, then we are put in a bit of a pickle-surely you can see that. Since we cannot give them what we want, I ask you again. How should the U.S. deal with NK?
As far as the unequal education between the wealthy and the poor, I say this. The socialism required to "fix" this - which you pick on us for - has zero potential in this country because of our love for freedom. We've defeated it. There is no sense in joining it now. And "Bush II's Axis of Evil rant" was a simple statement of fact. And that, in no way, justifies breaking a deal.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
05/05/2003 13:17 Comments ||
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#30
Sunnie, my point is that the incompetence of other nations and people is not our problem.
If you attack your own hamstrings with a hacksaw, don't expect my pity when you find you can't walk... and keep that bloody thing away from me.
#31
Sunnie: If the world view presented here is so terribly skewed, then what is your alternative? Containment? If so, how would you incentivize China to cooperate? Or would you recommend indicting Kim Il Jong before the World Court and then sending a team of diplomats to arrest him? You talk a lot about the US "throwing its weight around." Do you recommend that the US completely withdraw from the world scene? What then is your proposed enforcement mechanism to prevent bad people from exploiting innocent people? Are you a pacifist? If so, how do confront evil? Do you use a Ghandian approach? A primitive Christian approach (i.e. the Christian struggle against Roman power from c. 70 AD to c. 300 AD?)
#32
anonymous, please enlighten me. Which part of Old Patriats' statement is not "grown up"?
Posted by: Mike N. ||
05/05/2003 13:27 Comments ||
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#33
I would suggest that the U.S. should stop, metaphorically, throwing it's weight around. It destabilises the world, creates fear and makes all of us less secure.
Sunnie--I can't even fathom this statement... It is absurd for a country as powerful as ours to sit on its haunches and let all the two-bit dictators of the world think they can continue to enslave their own people and threaten their neighbors with impunity. That is ridiculous!
With this great power and unchallenged position in the world comes a huge responsibility to mankind. We have the power to make this world a better place, and we would be remiss and undeserving of that power if we did not use it.
Standing by and waiting for Saddam, Kim il Jung, and their ilk to level the playing field is so irresponsible it's criminally negligent!
Is that what you want? To see the dictators and oppressors of the world continue to enslave their own people? As long as you can sit home and have your tea and crumpets, while North Korea starves its own people to devote its resources to nuclear weapons manufacture, does that make things right in the world? When you came to Rantburg and posted your attack this morning, did you bother to think of the Iraqi people under Saddam who had had their tongues cut out for expressing opposing views? Do you think you could get away with saying anything against the government in North Korea?
Would it make you happy to see North Korea be left unchecked to develop a sizable nuclear stockpile so any future conflict between the US and NKor would be "more fair"? Is the US being a bully by attacking Saddam Hussein and liberating the Iraqi people because Saddam didn't yet have the full capability to kill millions? Would it have been better, in your opinion, that we waited 'til he could turn Jerusalem and Kuwait City and Riyadh into radioactive ash? Would it have been better if we waited 'til instead of 150 Coalition casualties we could have been guaranteed to suffer 150,000? 1,500,000? 15,000,000?
Sunnie, if you think we are all "less secure" today because of the United States, you are out of your damn mind. This country is not perfect, and it doesn't do everything perfectly, but the world is a better place for it. The sad thing is that people like you, so privileged to live somewhere where you can speak your mind, choose to be so blind to the fact that the US, by being so strong and "throwing its weight around", ensures that no Communist, Taliban, Nazi, Islamic fundamentalist, or other two-bit piece of crap takes that privilege away from you.
Posted by: Dar ||
05/05/2003 13:43 Comments ||
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#34
Sunnie,
Perhaps you haven't noticed the fact that one feature of this site happens to be what is called "irreverent humor." Maybe that's what you so piously regard as narrow and ignorant discourse. I once attended a rock concert in Europe where the band actually had to stop playing and assure the stiff-assed audience that it was OK to clap, cheer, move around a little. But I digress.
We have problems in this country. You have them in yours too. Sometimes you will hear swaggering, unthinking "patriots" spout off with stupid statements that imply the world is black and white and the US is divinely ordained to save the world. We understand that for what it is. While you are accusing us of narrow-mindedness and stupidity, please stop to consider whether you are buying into the popular conception (in Europe) that Americans are a cretinous mass of obese, gun-wielding psychopaths. Examine whether you are one of the many unthinking Europeans who believes that an American driving drunk is many times worse a transgression than a Frenchman driving drunk.
What, in your mind, passes for "intelligent discourse," I mean, aside from that in which Americans are vilified?
And finally, not to imply that you have certain Europeans' overblown and highly sensitive sense of their own superiority, but you shouldn't criticize spelling or grammatical errors in someone else's post when your own are full of them. Which brings us right around to the beginning, doesn't it?
Posted by: Joe ||
05/05/2003 13:47 Comments ||
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#35
Kim il Jung --> Kim Jong Il. Oops!
Posted by: Dar ||
05/05/2003 13:55 Comments ||
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#36
In his response to George, Sunnie points out "that the abbreviation of you are is spelled [you're, not your]." Actually "you're" is more properly referred to as a contraction. How anybody in a discussion about literacy could come up with the following sentence is beyond me: "It's certainly clear that many people care, about what is where there are differences." What does that mean?
Sunni does not capitalize the proper noun "Americans" either of the two times that he uses it in his first paragraph, mispells category (unless the Brits spell it diffently), but the most comical gaffe is where he describes American illiteracy saying it is "...far to high for the richest...." The adverb meaning excessive is, of course, spelled "too." There are several other mistakes as well, and that is only in the first paragraph. I suspect English is his second language, and that his nom de plume should be "Sunni."
Posted by: Richard T ||
05/05/2003 14:23 Comments ||
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#37
In writing about literacy it goes without saying that I would make a mistake in my previous reply in spelling "differently."
Posted by: Richard T ||
05/05/2003 14:28 Comments ||
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#38
Sunnie reminds me of the pitiful human beings who boost their egos by putting others down. He/she/it is now mounting the Critic's chair without credentials, and like a con-artist, tries to pass him/her/it-self off as some kind of expert. Sunnie, your reluctance to answer reasonable questions shows that your "expertise" is non-existent, since you know, within yourself, that your ego wouldn't stand the ripping apart of your pronouncements and the exposure of yourself as the one deficient in intellect, as well as courage. You certainly won't ever understand Americans if you won't comprehend that we loathe and detest pompous, carping, preachy, conniving, shifty windbags like yourself.
#41
I've been visiting this site about three months now. I went a month without commenting. I've had the pleasure (honest, strong) to get to know many of the posters through their posts, and through emails exchanged outside this forum. Anyone mistaking Rantburg posters as "ignorant and uninformed" must have just started visiting. I would hardly be surprised to learn that perhaps as many as a dozen of the "regulars" here are eligible for MENSA membership if they wanted to join. There are quite a number with extensive military careers, and many of those were spent in areas where international relations was a daily topic. Quite a few members have advanced degrees, and hold (or held) very important positions in private industry and/or government. I would also wager a considerable sum that most of us have been to at least one foreign country, and I KNOW Fred and I have been to several - many of them the SAME countries... 8^) I think you owe us an appology, Sunnie. I'll be waiting.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/05/2003 15:13 Comments ||
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#42
Ptah: Exactly! I find in general that the best way to deal with the likes of Sunnie is to ask them questions that take them way out of their comfort zone. Assuming that Sunnie is an indoctrinated Marxist or Islamist, there are areas that they are just not allowed to enter intellectually without overthrowing their world view and getting into trouble within their cult. Confronted with those questions, they either flee or lapse into duckspeak, making damn fools of themselves. At that point, they are easily laughed off.
Also, I mispelled Gandhian and Kim Jong Il in my earlier post. Mea Culpas all around.
#43
Sunni. Well, you fixed him. The contraction of "you are" is indeed, "you're".
Now, as to the possessive of "it". It's "its".
Got that?
Not "it's".
I shouldn't be too hard on you for this, as its use is expanding seemingly exponentially, even among those whose first language is English and who count an advanced degree among their less useful expenditures of lifespan.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
05/05/2003 15:15 Comments ||
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#44
Sorry, Sunnie, but you haven't spent much time here if you don't know who Murat is. He's a Turk who left Rantburg after the short war threw him into depression, but even then he had a nicer disposition than you do. Now that you have posted again, it is quite clear that you are not Murat in disguise. French is my guess.
Posted by: Tom ||
05/05/2003 15:39 Comments ||
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#45
I say French because I've never met anyone from the U.K. with such arrogance and such a chip on their shoulder. Furthermore, Sunnie seems to have missed some of the finer points of humor on this site, so I'm guessing that Engish is a second language. If not French, U.K. of Middle Eastern origin. Clearly lacking a sense of humor.
Posted by: Tom ||
05/05/2003 15:57 Comments ||
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#46
Sorry Sunni, I'm a chemical engineer so my english skills are not that of a Rhodes Scholar. I wonder what your degree is in? Were you a soft science comm major or poly sci?
Posted by: George ||
05/05/2003 16:19 Comments ||
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#47
Don't blame me, Sunnie (or Sunni?). I tried to warn you.
#48
I dunno that I'd go so far as to guess he's French, Tom. He might just be Frenchified. Not all inhabitants of a country are identical. I mean, I once met an Australian I didn't like. Who'da thunkit?
Oh, and to Sunnie, I'd certainly put American opportunities for higher education or any other endeavor before most other countries in the world. There really aren't any limits here, except for IQ and personal initiative. There are too many people here who started with literally nothing and ended up with much - and there are more than enough people who started out with something and ended up with little or nothing. We rustics think that the chance of the one justifies the risks of the other.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2003 17:02 Comments ||
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#49
Sunnie, If you're not Murat but a different troll I'm sorry.
#50
Talk about misnamed! Did our Sunnie little Troll forget to take her Midol this morning? Ooohh...wait, she's obviously a hold-over from the sixties.. more likely a hot flash.
In the interest of not further rousing Sunnie's ire, I suggest you not end sentences with a preposition -- for example, your sentence which read, "I wonder what your degree is in," would have been better phrased "I wonder what your degree is in, you asshole?"
Please keep this simple rule in mind if you post additional comments, as you wouldn't want to offend Sunnie's highly refined sensibilities.
TIA for your consideration.
Posted by: John Phares ||
05/05/2003 18:03 Comments ||
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#52
Old Patriot:
I have visited Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Guatamala, Belize, Haiti, Grenada, Cuba (undercover), Dominican Republic, Colombia, and Venezuela during my time in service to my country.
I currently hold a,
BSc in Biology
Dr of Divinity (Honorary as they all are)
PhD in Religion
am an ordained minister,
and am,
working on 2nd Bachelors in Military History (American Military University) online
I'm not a MENSA member, but I have my own business (online game publishing and design), have had it suggested to me that I attend both law school or medical school, and have been invited to take the test to qualify to practice before the IRS (for accounting/bookkeeping).
I'm not a genius, but I am a product of the American educational system.
Sunni: You're a fucking moron who doesn't know the first thing about our government, our people, or our way of life. You have zero clue about our educational system despite what you may have read from leftist media outlets. You simply do not have any idea about who or what America is or how Americans work their entire lives to make their lives and the lives of others across the world better. STFU!!!
#53
FOTSGreg - Like the man said, it ain't boastin' if you can do it. Go Here for MY side of the equation.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/05/2003 21:11 Comments ||
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#54
Sunni,
We know you're intellectually superior and all, but, by the way:
1. it's a-b-b-r-e-v-a-t-i-o-n, not 'abreviation'
2. it's e-n-l-i-g-h-t-e-n-e-d, not 'enlightended'
3. it's w-e-a-p-o-n-s, not 'weopons'
4. it's p-e-r-c-e-i-v-e-d, not 'percieved'
5. it's s-e-c-t-i-o-n, not 'secton'
6. it's e-d-u-c-t-i-o-n, not 'educatiom'
7. it's c-o-n-v-e-r-s-e-l-y, not 'conversly'
8. it's d-e-s-c-e-n-d, not 'decend'
9. it's h-y-p-o-c-r-i-s-y, not 'hypocricy'
I'm really surprised you didn't know how to spell #9, since you exemplify it so well.
Posted by: charlotte ||
05/05/2003 23:49 Comments ||
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#55
--why is it that you also have nearly 12% of your population living in poverty and why is that figure rising? --
Sunni also doesn't get out much, because if Sunni did, he/she'd realize that the wonderful welfare state of Sweden would rank 48th or 49th as a state.
And Sunni doesn't know why unemployment is rising? Here, much less in the EU? Which is, in some cases, 1-1/2 times as high? And when Gordon's increases get implemented, maybe Sunni will tell US why unemployment is rising?
Also, Sunni, some of us have a glancing acquaintance w/what is going on in the UK schools. samizdata.net. An informative site.
#56
Sunnie should also note that the FY 2003 US poverty line was $18,400 for a family of four, an amount higher than the per capita income of 155 of the world's 192 nations - thus that 12% is better off than about 90% of the rest of the world.
Posted by: Sofia ||
05/07/2003 10:02 Comments ||
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EFL
Three African presidents will fly to Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, today in the most serious attempt so far to persuade Robert Mugabe to step down. Thabo Mbeki, President of Zimbabwe's powerful neighbour South Africa, will be joined by Bakili Muluzi of Malawi and the Nigerian leader, Olusegun Obasanjo. They are now said to accept that Mr Mugabe's departure is the only possible starting point for resolving the Zimbabwe crisis. Took 'em long enough. Don't they read Rantburg?
They only read the dirty parts...
Although few Zimbabweans are expecting an announcement of regime change at the end of the one-day visit, many regard the mission as the beginning of the end of Robert Mugabe's uninterrupted 23-year reign of ineptitude rule. Senior officials in Mr Mbeki's government insist that the South African President is finally ready to work hard to secure Mr Mugabe's departure from office. Mr Mbeki knows his plans depend on Mr Mugabe's co-operation and so he will try not to annoy the Zim-Bob-We leader. Just how does he propose to tell Bob to leave and yet not annoy him?
The United States, backed by Britain, is pushing for a solution that would see Mr Mugabe replaced by a member of the ruling Zanu-PF party. The new President would then call a constitutional conference and organise elections to be monitored by the international community. America, Britain and South Africa have indicated that the country's former finance minister, Simba Makoni, is a suitable interim figure to take over from Mr Mugabe. A constitutional amendment for Mr Mugabe to retire without an immediate election would require the opposition to co-operate. Mr Mbeki and his colleagues will also meet the main opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, of the Movement for Democratic Change. Mr Mbeki may have kind words for Mr Mugabe in public but his officials insist that in private he will encourage him to quit. To heighten the pressure, President George Bush is sending Walter Kansteiner, his special adviser on Africa, to the region this week.
Are we finally getting beyond lip service? Will Dominique fly in to sit and Bob's side and help him negotiate his way out of stepping down?
Mr Mugabe, 79, has hinted that he might step down in favour of a member of his own party. Quoting an unnamed analyst, a practice often used to air the views of the Information Minister, Jonathan Moyo, the Zimbabwean Sunday Mail newspaper said Zanu-PF had the credentials to rule, while the opposition was "choice of the people of Zimbabwe" "a British creation". Embattled Zimbabweans have pinned their hopes on Mr Mbeki providing a mechanism to end their political and economic misery. "We want to look back at Mbeki and say this great man became our saviour," said Lovemore Madhuku, chairman of Zimbabwe's largest civic group, the National Constitutional Assembly. "No one wants history to record Mbeki as the greatest betrayer of the Zimbabwean people." You might consider doing the job yourself, Lovemore. Fortune favors those ....
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/05/2003 12:36 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Right Lovemore, and you can bet if Bob "retires" he's going to take a helluva lot of your country's wealth with him.
Posted by: R. McLeod ||
05/05/2003 4:11 Comments ||
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#2
R McLeod - you're right, but I'm afraid it's already too late. Most is probably stashed in Swiss banks. It would be a damn shame if Bob and Grace are able to escape a Ceausescu or Mussolini ending
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/05/2003 8:48 Comments ||
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#3
Lemme conjecture where Mugabe would go if he were to leave? I bet a nice pension on the left bank of the Seine? Jacques can stop by on the way to work in the morning and share a cup of cafe au lait with Bob.
#4
Most of Zimbabwe's wealth is in the land and in the people. First get rid of Mugabe any way possible. Then give the country a reasonable system of laws, impartial judges, and a reasonably free system of economy, and Zimbabwe will once again be the pride of Africa.
#5
Did all the white farmers who knew how to really farm and did not go on the original "chicken run" stay? You know, the ones that stayed on post-Ian Smith but were finally booted off their lands by Mugabe and the War Veterans. They are the ones needed to pick up the pieces and get food crops back growing again in Zimbabwe.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/05/2003 20:36 Comments ||
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#6
Hey, I just got a note from Mugabe. If I give him an account number for him to transfer the money to, he'll give me 20%.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
